A New Chapter

For a few weeks, I have been contemplating writing about one of the major, life-changing events I have experienced. For certain, this is one of the most important things that has ever happened to me and, while I feel that now is a good time to share this story, every time I try to write about it, I can’t. The words won’t come. Regardless, I’m going to make another attempt. I can’t really move on to anything else if I circumvent this portion of my life, so it must be told and I’m hoping today is the day!

Early one December, a young man came to my work to (of course) take a test. It’s a good thing that he was the one taking the test because after I saw him, I could barely concentrate on anything else! He was good looking, dressed nice, beautiful eyes, cute smile… I was in heaven! While he was testing, I kept looking for excuses to walk the room just so I could stare at him. Sadly, he did not seem nearly as preoccupied with me as I was with him. He was perfectly focused on his exam and when he finished testing, I could do little more than sigh as he walked out of the door and out of my life. C’est la vie, right? I held onto a little hope that one day he might have need to come back and would notice me.

The next day, as I was preparing to leave my apartment to start a day of work and school, I decided it was a good day to be lazy. I dressed in my most comfortable clothes, skipped my makeup routine, pulled my hair up in a pony tail and headed out the door. I’m fairly certain there’s a Murphy’s Law that fits my situation that day because, as I sat at my desk, who should walk through the door but the cute boy from the day before?! Yesterday I was all confidence, strutting up and down the aisles, trying to catch his eye. Today, if I wasn’t worried that it would make me look even more ridiculous, I would have slid out of my chair and under my desk and stayed there until he left. Why, oh why didn’t I at least put on mascara?! To make matters worse, the only reason he came in that day was to ask me on a date! A date! As I wrote down my phone number for him, I did my best to cover my embarrassment over not being fixed up and he promised to call to finalize our plans.

(I’ve got to be honest here. I didn’t remember his name when he called. I think my memory lapse had something to do with my extreme embarrassment at being so caught off guard earlier in the day. If you aren’t already aware of this little tidbit, let me enlighten you a smidge: young girls have very random thoughts and, occasionally, some silly ones. You can’t imagine how relieved I was that he had a very normal name. All day I had been worried about what I would do if we got married and his name was “Wildthing Onalog” or something!! Yep, random and silly.)

I fairly floated through the rest of my day. Shortly after arriving home, my phone rang and it was Brandon.  Although we had originally planned to go out later in the week, he asked if I would like to attend a concert at the school that night where a friend of his would be performing. As they say, folks, the rest is history.

We went on our first date that night and were virtually inseparable after. A week later, he proposed and two weeks after that, we were married. No, really! Three weeks from our first date, we were husband and wife. Crazy, you say? Most thought so. Our parents (my mother especially) would like to have killed us. But, we were in love. As December came to a close, we sat in my apartment discussing our upcoming nuptials. We were poor college kids and neither of us came from wealthy families. I felt that the wedding I wanted was unbelievably out of reach. I found myself thinking one of those thoughts that doesn’t really make sense but somehow does: I would rather have no wedding at all than to settle for something haphazard and thrown together. And, so, I said to Brandon, “Let’s elope. Tonight. Let’s go to Vegas and get married!”

A few minutes later, we were in the car driving to Las Vegas. A couple hours later, we were standing in line at the courthouse to buy a marriage license. As the last day of the year was just beginning, we stood in a little wedding chapel on the Las Vegas Strip and vowed to love, honor and cherish one another until death do us part. Although the ceremony that night was far from being my dream wedding, I couldn’t have been happier! Everything I had ever wanted was taking shape and from that day forward, I would be building the life I had dreamt of with my husband, best friend and soul mate. I couldn’t imagine a more amazing way to end one year and a more exciting way to begin the next!