It feels like an amazing milestone. Ten years. At the same time, it feels like the blink of an eye.
We were so young back then. (I was so THIN!) We had our lives ahead of us. We had nothing but potential ahead of us, the promise of the years to come. There was no way of knowing if the years would be difficult or easy. I’d like to think I knew better than to expect easy. But with my best friend at my side? How hard could it really be?
I remember when we booked our photographer, over a year in advance (we had a long engagement). She said it was a good thing we had, since 08/08 was viewed as a very “lucky” date in the Chinese culture and that had spread to Western culture as well. As such, many couples were lining up to get married on that same day. After all, who would refuse a little extra luck to start off their married lives?
Honestly, I just picked the day because I liked the repeating date. (12/12, 08/08, 07/07… you see a trend?) That and it was in August. I was basically told by my mother that August was a good month so I remember picking up a calendar and scanning the Saturdays. It took me maybe two seconds to pick it out. Easy, peasy.
For years, I expected that on our tenth anniversary we would do something special to celebrate the day. In fact, for a very long time my idea of the perfect anniversary would be to return to Mendocino, where we honeymooned, and enjoy some cool, coastal air. Perhaps we’d even stay at the same bed and breakfast we stayed at all those years ago. Perhaps we’d even stay in the same room.
Yeah, not going to happen this year.
Shoot, with two little ones and one not so little one, we can’t even manage a nice dinner out and a movie at the theater. But, we’re also mature enough to realize that those things don’t really matter. We can have a special anniversary without going anywhere. Maybe we’ll fix a nice dinner here at home to have after (most of) the kids are in bed. Maybe we won’t. We might not be able to bestow fabulous gifts on one another, but we can look at each other and know that another ten years will be a breeze, as long as we’re together.
Happy Anniversary, sweetie pie.
