by RTF Staff Writer Derek Hanisch

Congrats!” Laura, my supervisor from the summer, told me one day on facebook chat.

“What for?” I asked.

“You’re engaged!”

“Huh?” I replied, flabbergasted.

“You don’t need to hide it. I talked with Martha. I saw the ring!”

“WHAT!?!?!?”

Martha and I were not engaged. We were not even dating.

I spent last summer working at a special needs camp. It was one of the most amazing, yet challenging, times of my life. I worked at one of the smaller branches of the camp with about twenty other staff members. There were two other males on staff, but they were in high school. Then there was me.

For the most part there wasn’t any awkwardness between the hordes of female staff and myself. That is, until Martha came along.

Martha was twenty-eight and a fellow counselor. She tended to be a bit of a drama queen, alienating herself from the other staff. Not liking to see people alone I sought to be Martha’s friend.

As the summer was ending, I began to hear rumors from my fellow staff that Martha was telling tales about conversations we’d had about “us,” and how we were going to start dating once the summer was over. I corrected the staff members and just ignored it. I figured everything would just go away if I ignored it long enough.

I was wrong.

When I could ignore the issue no longer, I finally had to confront Martha about our “engagement.”  She told me not to worry about it, that she was engaged to a different Derek. Laura was just confused. I wasn’t reassured. I asked if I could see a picture of the two of them. Martha didn’t have a single picture of this other Derek.

I went back and told this to Laura. She informed me that there was no other Derek, and that when Martha talked about her boyfriend (now fiancé), she talked about me, from camp. I later learned that Martha told other counselors from camp about our engagement.

I was creeped out. I had a stalker!

Martha had fabricated an entire relationship between us and I barely knew her! My friends found this story hilarious, while I was considering having plastic surgery and changing my name! I thought that moving to Germany might be in order as well.

I bet right now you’re asking the all important question: how did things end?

Martha and I are not married. In fact, we no longer talk. I have recently learned from my fellow counselors that our wedding was called off due to our religious differences. Apparently they were just too different for us to reconcile our relationship.

What did I learn from this experience?  Tazers are expensive and restraining orders are hard to get!

Derek Hanisch is unique indeed! Four years ago he fought and overcame cancer, a battle that would make him into the man he is today. Derek is majoring in Social Work while praying that God will use his life experiences to impact others. Feel free to connect with Derek on his new blog at http://wordartificer.blogspot.com.