A Story of a Boy and a Girl

Dear Jack,

I want to tell you a story about a boy and a girl.

The girl was in college and had gone through some things -- the death of her father, a particularly awful relationship which serves as an object lesson in how grief clouds judgment, and had finally decided to just enjoy her senior year and not worry so much about finding a new boyfriend.

The boy was also in college and he had never had a girlfriend. To disguise how much this bothered him, he surrounded himself with a bunch of other guys and they played this silly game called "Dungeons and Dragons."

Well, the girl heard about this group of guys and to show just how much she didn't need a boyfriend, decided to just hang out with these fellas and just be friends.

Since everyone knows that there is a magical point somewhere in elementary school where boys and girls can't just be friends, you should already know where this story ends, but I'll tell you anyway.

The boy thought the girl was really cool for hanging out with the guys. So he acted extra cool to get her attention.

The girl thought the boy was kind of making a fool out of himself, acting so cool, and felt extra protective of this boy who was working so hard to impress her.

So when the boy asked the girl out, of course she said, "yes."

They went out for a while. Mostly the boy just thought it was great to have a girlfriend. Mostly the girl just thought it was great to have a boyfriend.

Then one day, and I can't say when this day happened for the boy, but for the girl, it was the day that she met the boy's grandfather. On that day, when the girl saw the man the boy admired most, she understood that he might just be a boy, but someday he was going to turn into a man and when he did, he would be a really good man, just like his grandfather. So the girl decided that more than anything else, she wanted to be the woman by that man's side, so she waited for the boy to be ready to get married.

Four long years later, he did ask the her to marry him, and of course she said, "yes."

They got married in a church and promised to love, honor, and cherish each other, and mostly they meant it.

The first couple of years of their marriage were just fine. A lot like their dating life, really. They had some ups. They had some downs.

After three years of marriage, after enjoying the ups and surviving the downs, they decided to start a family.

The idea of bringing another person, maybe two into their family made them revisit their vows.

This time they vowed to love, honor, and cherish each other till death do they part. And they really and truly meant it.

So they had their first child, a daughter.

Then they decided that their little family needed one more, so they had their son.

That made them feel like their family was just about perfect.

And now the two of them have been married for seven years and the thing that the girl finds the most amazing, the most unexpected, the most exciting, is that the love she felt the first time she saw that boy in college and even the love she felt on that wedding day seven years ago is but a small spark compared to the love she feels for her husband today.

I hope you can find a girl to share that kind of love with someday, Jack.

Love,
Mom