Summer Lovin'

It was a small piece of white paper. My husband's chicken scratch of handwriting was on it. A date, a time, a striped polo shirt and a white tank top.

That is it. That was all that was on this scrap of paper that Ryan handed to me. It was past 11pm and we were cleaning out our mess of a garage. Bins upon bins of random items where waiting to be gone through. We needed to clean up the chaos and get ready to list our house to sell. We were moving back to Michigan and I just wanted to go to bed and rest my weary, pregnant body.

But Ryan insisted that I re-examine this piece of paper.

"Look at it. Look at the date." he insisted.

Sure enough. July 16th.

This piece of paper was from July 16, 2000.

My than super sentimental boyfriend scribbled down the time, the date and what we were wearing when he asked me to be his girlfriend. He didn't want it to be for just the summer, but for the rest of the year. College in Minnesota for me. High school in Michigan for him.

It was a big moment in both our lives. Monumental enough that he felt the need to remember the exact time, even what we were wearing.

Thirteen years ago, we just wanted to be together and would worry later about what would come.

Now, we still feel the same way. Just want to be together, no matter what life may throw at us. And trust me, life, right now, is throwing as much as it can muster to throw.  

Some summer romances last just the summer and fade away as the leaves start to fall.  But I am more than happy to think back about that summer and realize that it was just the beginning of a wonderful, crazy adventure with a boy in a striped polo shirt who just wanted me to be his girlfriend.