So I Entered a Contest

What do you do when you're procrastinating grading student papers (or whatever it is that demands your complete attention for way too long?) Tonight, I entered a contest in the Idaho State Journal. I was supposed to write why I said "yes" to my spouse and share my proposal story. So here's my submission:

Why I Said Yes

If I had relied on logic to decide whether or not to marry Doug, I would have said yes. He was the kindest person I had ever met. He was emotionally and financially stable. He was incredibly handsome--with melt-worthy dimples and sparkling blue-green eyes-- and I was definitely attracted to him. He was attentive to his mother. He was ethical, and spiritual. He was ambitious, and was working toward his dreams. So the yes made sense.

But making the biggest decision of my life required more than logic. Lucky for him, my heart was absolutely, completely his. On the day he proposed, he woke me up to give me a purple rose (my favorite), and clues regarding the adventures we would have that day. The clues led us to run together on the bike path. Then we rode on a ferris wheel. We went to an art museum, and ate at the Spaghetti Factory, where we'd gone on our first date. We watched a chick flick, and the sizzling Blondie we shared at Applebee's was sublime.

I was pretty sure he was going to propose, and I couldn't wipe the smile off my face all through a 3-hour shift at work that night. When he picked me up from work, and drove us to the grassy hill where we'd first kissed, I saw him quickly switch something from his left pocket to his right. We held hands, sat on a blanket, and savored our happiness. He let me know he loved me, then knelt on one knee, and asked me to marry him.

I said yes because everything I knew about him, and everything I would ever learn about him, was worth it. My heart had been broken before, but I trusted Doug to cherish me forever. I knew that he was the person with whom I wanted to spend the rest of my life, and the rest of forever.

Now, seven years later, my husband wants to use the internet, and asks what I'm writing on the computer. I smile.

"You're not sending out a letter asking everyone we know to email you back, saying things they like about me, are you?" he worries.

"Nope," I reply. "I wouldn't put anyone through that."

"Then why are you smiling?" he asks.

I tell the man of my dreams that it's a surprise.