What Was So Special About The One That Got Away?

I understand that phrase to mean the person who we either showed no interest in or broke up with, who in retrospect we realize might actually have been a better match for us than we recognized at the time.

I have no very dramatic example of that, but I do think wistfully sometimes about a girl I knew in high school. We always got along with each other very well. We enjoyed each other's company in groups. But it never occurred to me to date her, because I had a crazy notion that you only dated someone if you felt "head over heels in love, with romantic music playing in your head", Hollywood style. Meanwhile, I was beating my head against the wall about another girl, who went out with me sometimes by who clearly did not feel about me the way I did about her, and who was the source of angst about "unrequited love." (As if I knew what love was back then!)

It was only after graduation, and after I was in another relationship (which was a good one while it lasted) that I came to realize what an idiot I had been, putting myself through unnecessary pain. If I had just gone out with her instead, we probably would have dates that were relaxed, filled with laughter, and without the drama. Maybe it never would have turned into anything serious, but hey -- it was just high school. She did not have a boyfriend, and the two of us might have had a happier time during those years than we actually did, even if nothing came of it in the long run.