When I was younger, a pinkie promise was unbreakable. You broke a pinkie promise and you could expect to be shunned by your toddling peers until snack time, being called the worst thing possible - 'a meanie'.
As I grew, pinkie promises grew far and few. Maybe that deal over the box of marbles with the girl in the rainbow hood in second grade... Or in sixth grade, when I told my friend Jason I still wet the bed. Yeah, I think I recall pinkie promising half my sandwich to my best friend in return for his chocolate cookie. I'm pretty there was that one time in middle school when I pinkie promised with my first girlfriend our 'engagement'.
Heh.
In high school, everything changed. Pinkie promises morphed into ghosted neck kisses and murmured sweet nothings. Or making out in the locker room. That too. Promises were so easily broken. No one sealed them with anything. It was so easy to just…promise.
Pinkie promises, to me, always meant something. The gesture itself, it was as if you were showing that yes, you took the split second you needed to think about it and were ready to commit. The gentle pressure you felt on your pinkie was so comforting.
So when I was sitting in my Business Law 101 class, second term, third year university student, I never expected what happened next.
"Alright everyone," my eccentric looking new professor addressed the auditorium. "I know you have a hell of a whole lot of work to do..."
A faint hum started as students woke up from their lethargic sleep deprived dazes and looked down with new found respect at their lecturer. Someone was saying something they liked to hear.
"And I accept that. So I'm going to give you the very basics that you need…"
A cheer rose.
"On one condition."
A collective groan quickly followed.
"Oh don't be so pessimistic," the professor laughed.
The auditorium turned quiet again.
"Just come here and pinkie promise me you're going to try your hardest during my class. But beware, if you break it…Let's just say you won't be seeing that diploma of yours in a long long while."
What?
"Oh don't just sit there! Hurry it up! I don't have all day."
"Who is this guy and who does he think he is?" someone muttered under their breath next to me as students began filing up to stand in front of the professor.
I grinned and got up to shuffle along with the rest of the mass up front.
"Beats me, but I'm pretty sure this class just became a whole lot more amazing."
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