Hey, it's Major. Over the past few years, I've had the great privilege of sharing poetry with you and offering a daily moment to pause and slow down.

Today, we're revisiting one of my favorite episodes from my time on the show. I hope you enjoyed this selection.

I'm Major Jackson, and this is The Slowdown. The first time I was in love, I started missing baseball practice.

Instead, I went to the library.

Cherie spent afternoons after school doing her homework there.

I could barely think about anything but her.

Not my upcoming games.

Not my algebra homework.

Not the transitive properties of acute angles.

Not even the high school I would attend after middle school.

Popular songs took on meaning in a way they hadn't before.

Love me in a special way.

What more can I say?

What an immense feeling. To live with a perennial lump in my chest. Whenever Sheree

returned a book to a shelf, I picked it up and skimmed it. Without giving away my identity,

I left notes in the books she read more than once.

She spawned my first flying dream.

I flew over houses and landed in her backyard where we ate pound cake.

So you probably figured by now it wasn't love, but a crush. Friends, coaches, and family noticed my forlornness.

My mom was the first to figure it out. She encouraged me to say a kind word to Cherie and just talk to her without all the passionate feelings.

I did, and it went nowhere.

Now, I laughed thinking of my preteen self.

...