JUST AN ORDINARY DAY

Just An Ordinary Day

It was just an ordinary Tuesday and I had experienced a hundred Tuesdays before. But this day would inevitably change my entire life forever. In the weeks prior to the Tuesday in question, my boyfriend had proposed and of course I was absolutely ecstatic. I accepted his proposal, and we’d started marriage counseling shortly after that.

We had grown up in the same church and were all too familiar with each other, thanks to many years of countless youth fellowships and church services. I remember the time, we had made plans to meet at the county fair and ride rides together but that night instead of hanging with me, he hung out with his cousin and a few other guys. Needless to say, I was not pleased with him that night.

So, being the scorned teenage girl that I was, I wrote him a mean letter and gave it to him the next time we saw each other. That is just one of the many stories we still laugh about today.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009, my fiancé, and I met at our church for our regularly scheduled counseling session. We had attended several sessions prior to the day, some alone, I with the pastor’s wife and he, with the pastor. And we had also done a few together, just to discuss the basics that people usually talk about during those types of things.

Anyway, he was dressed in is work uniform because he had to work after. That was just one of the many things I loved about him. A young man with a stable job, no priors, and no kids, which was almost unheard of. I was dressed in jeans a red hoodie and sneakers, nothing special for an ordinary day. We both worked the night shift, he worked like three to eleven and I worked the overnight shift at McDonalds.

At the end of our final counseling session, the pastor said something to the effect of, well, I guess you guys are ready. We looked at each other surprised and were like really. I mean yeah, that was the goal, but it just seemed so ordinary. Then, he proceeded to say, I could marry y’all today if you want me to. Why did he say that? We looked at one another and we agreed. We are two of the simplest people you will ever know, and that day became our marriage day!

Neither of us had any interest in a wedding and us getting married had nothing to do with the venue, the guest list, or the type of food we would serve. That would have all just been for our guest and we were looking forward to a life filled with countless days of food, fun and family. So, we chose to get married like it was any other day.

I was twenty-one and he was twenty-two. Two young hard-working adults in love, why not just get hitched right then and there. There was absolutely nothing standing in our way, so we left, went, and brought wedding bands, swung by the county courthouse, and picked up a marriage license.

While we were out running those errands, we figured we would call some of our family to see if they wanted to come. It wasn’t like anyone objected to us getting married, we just didn’t mind if no one else was there. It was close to three in the afternoon by then so, most of our family and friends were at work, but not even that mattered to us. My mother, his mother, my brother, niece, two ministers, the pastor and last but most certainly not least God was in attendance. I’m sure he did not miss this nuptial ceremony because it was most certainly something to witness.

We had discussed my not being interested in having a wedding. The getting all dressed up and walking down the aisle with everyone gawking at me was not on my list of things to do. And thankfully a young handsome good-looking man had found me, that understood me in a way no one else had ever taken the time to.

When I say, I hate attention, dressing up, waiting and large gatherings especially when I am the center of attention, I mean just that.

When my fiancé proposed, he had ignited a fire inside me, through the pressure of counseling I realized that he had seen beyond the surface and fallen in love with the woman I had concealed from the world. In marriage counseling, when it’s done right, you uncover some hidden things that not everyone is privy to.

So, that Tuesday, February 3, 2009, the real me stood in our pastor’s office, dressed in jeans, a red hoodie and sneakers and vowed to have and to hold from that day forward, till death do us part, the love of my life, in front of my mom, his mother, my brother, my niece, two ministers, the pastor and God.

On that day very few people witnessed the true me and just like diamonds are brought to the surface during natural events, so had I surfaced and now, having been loved by the man who said I do to this me, the real me, it no longer had to lurk in the shadows.

Weddings are a natural event that most people dream of, and I am sure my now husband had not dreamed of marrying his bride in a pastor’s office with jeans and a hoodie on, but nevertheless, he married me as me and that is a day I’ll never forget.