17 Years

Seventeen years ago, on May 5, 1994, Tim and I officially became boyfriend and girlfriend.  I was 15 and a freshman in high school in a town I had moved to the preceding October, thereby making me one of the "new" kids in school.  Tim was 16 and a sophomore and had gone to school in that particular district his entire life.  I remember bits of that warm spring day in startling clarity (it's startling because my memory is usually very awful).  I was wearing a lavender t-shirt and white jeans and after school, I was hanging out with Tim outside the doors to the school, waiting for my dad to drive me home (my dad worked for the school system and his office was at my high school).  I remember standing up against one of the concrete pillars that supported the second story overhang of the building.  Tim was circling me and the pillar while riding his bike.  We were just talking, teasing each other while we flirted as high schoolers do.  We had only started talking to each other as friends a few months before (I swear it was in December that I met him, he swears it was later than that.  It's still a point of playful argument to this day!)  I don't remember what all was said, but I do know that Tim asked me if I wanted to be his girlfriend and then asked me out for our first date.


Seventeen years ago today, I was just a young girl with a crush on the tall, dark and handsome sophomore I barely knew.  Today, I'm a much older woman with a deep love for that tall, dark and handsome man.  He knows me, my hopes, my fears, my flaws and despite it all, loves me just because I am me.  He asks nothing more of me than I just continue to be me and for that, I am grateful.


Tim, happy anniversary.  I love you more today than I ever thought was possible 17 years ago.