if you leave

25 years ago today i walked out of my house in a pair of khaki shorts and a college sweatshirt to take this girl out for the first time. little knowing then my life would never be the same again. i picked her up in my mom's volvo and we drove to the festival cinemas to see "pretty in pink" starring molly ringwald and directed by the late john hughes. the picture, typical of the time is a twist on romeo and juliet. boy meets girl, they fall in love but are doomed from the beginning. they live in two separate worlds and get pressure from all sides to give up their love. unlike shakespeare, in the end it does not end tragically. at least the end we see.
well 25 years later this girl and i have not ended tragically either. sure, we've had our moments along the way. in fact it was a rocky 10 year road that eventually dumped us in front of a church almost 15 years ago to begin the real marathon. but on that night back in 86' none of this was in my mind. when i showed up at her door she answered wearing a pair of khaki shorts and a sweatshirt too. so we walked out into the world looking like the all-american couple. (or maybe brother and sister) after the movie we ended up at the denny's between fairmont and 150th. we shared a plate of fries and milkshakes and talked the way teenagers do. we were both shy but we loved to laugh. and the conversation was easy and led us to laughter.
more than half my life has now been wrapped up with this woman. i still know next to nothing, but i have come to understand that real love is so much more than the giddy romantic excitement of a john hughes movie. and although everything looks so much different today than it did then (and so much better) i just didn't want to forget today that it all started so many years ago between a girl and a boy.