“The heart wants what the heart wants.”

August 4, 2017 5:59 PM

"In a Heartbeat" - Animated Short Film by Beth David and Esteban Bravo [YouTube] “It’s hard to forget your first childhood crush — and the anxiety that accompanied it. (Do you like me? Circle yes or no.) That heart-pounding, sweaty-palmed infatuation is nothing new in children’s animation, but two students decided to tell the tale in a different way, creating an animated short film that is drawing the interest of big production studios. Here, the enamored characters are both middle-school boys. And their dovelike innocence is charming a huge audience on YouTube. Posted on Monday, the four-minute film has already been viewed more than 14 million times.” [via: New York Times]
posted by Fizz (16 comments total)

My childhood gay crush in fourth grade went differently, I offered to bite him, he offered me his arm and went "yeah, do it", and then I chickened out.

MY BIGGEST REGRET IN LIFE.
posted by Conspire at 6:02 PM on August 4, 2017 [11 favorites]

My first crush was a girl named Emily. I wrote anonymous notes to her about how beautiful her hair was. My mistake was trusting a middle-man who told a friend of hers who told the school. She found out about my crush during lunch and screamed. And it was not a happy scream of joy. It was always awkward after that. But it's cool, it's not like we went to the same junior high, high school, and were in the same classes for the next 6 years, oh wait...

</3
posted by Fizz at 6:07 PM on August 4, 2017 [15 favorites]

Fizz, I too suffered from a similar man-in-the-middle attack of sorts. In my case the revelation to my crush was met with "I'd rather get hit by a bus."

More on topic, that video was delightful.
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 6:13 PM on August 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

My freshman year crush figured it out on his own, and quietly took me aside one day to call me on it and gently turn me down. I fell all over myself denying it, but was quietly devastated, of course. And then got over it.

We're actually Facebook buddies now, and I finally owned up to it when he did something awesome for someone and I wanted to congratulate him by telling him my honest-to-god reaction - which was to think that "wow, apparently I had really good taste in men even in high school." :-)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:24 PM on August 4, 2017 [4 favorites]

A very very sweet little cartoon. Real life first gay crushes tend not to end so well, but no matter. The animation captures perfectly the feeling of out of control gooey eyed madness that all of us have felt.
posted by helmutdog at 6:31 PM on August 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

The way the heart just runs away, quite literally in this animated short. Yeah, that...
posted by Fizz at 6:33 PM on August 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

At my 20th reunion I told my childhood crush that I had a crush on her in 4th grade.

Yeah, don't do that.
posted by bondcliff at 6:51 PM on August 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

I really appreciate that, if nothing else, we're in a time where at least some young people are free to imagine a good ending to this situation, a kind ending, with no beatings.

Although I don't identify as queer now, I developed a fierce crush on another girl in the second or third grade. I remember acting out my adoration for her in melodramatic ways, like kneeling before her with hands clasped up, which I must have seen in a cartoon or something. Her family moved away, but I think this was probably just as well. If she had stayed at the school longer, she would have felt an obligation to treat me like crap so as not to get called names.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:54 PM on August 4, 2017 [8 favorites]

What my heart wants is for me to take my medications more regularly.
posted by Samizdata at 8:20 PM on August 4, 2017 [6 favorites]

Also, GODDAMN IT! I DUSTED THIS WEEK! I DID!
posted by Samizdata at 8:30 PM on August 4, 2017

That was lovely.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 9:18 PM on August 4, 2017

This was great. And my (highschool) crush just 'liked' the NYT story about it on Facebook. Be still my heart...
posted by sevenyearlurk at 9:39 PM on August 4, 2017

(Don't read the comments.)
posted by xyzzy at 10:01 PM on August 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh, jeez, to be that age again ... NOT!
posted by oheso at 6:05 AM on August 5, 2017

That was sweet. I've seen this forwarded all over the Internet and one thing I appreciate is most people are just saying "here, watch this sweet video about a youthful crush". And not really remarking that it's a gay crush. Being LGBT content is important part of the video, but it seems straight people can relate to it personally without seeing it as some Other. Maybe society is finally coming around a bit.
posted by Nelson at 7:08 AM on August 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

In 8th grade I put an anonymous note in my crush's locker and hid around the corner while he opened it. He read it aloud to his friends and I nearly died. I don't know for sure if he knew it was me, but in my yearbook, he wrote "Are you ready for a new sensation?"

We went to different high schools and lost track of each other (not that we were ever really friends). The next time I saw him was on TV. He'd become a reporter for the highest rated local station. He's now an anchor there, and it's really weird to see his face all the time.
posted by AFABulous at 8:11 AM on August 5, 2017 [1 favorite]