13 Years In the Making

Micah and I celebrated our 8th anniversary on Monday night, but as many people know, we have been together since high school. When I first met Micah, he had shaggy hair down to his shoulders, wore roller skates held together by multicolored duct tape, and was barely passing any of his classes. I was an overachieving student sporting combat boots, hippy skirts and I was totally enamored with his witty charm. The best word to describe our high school romance would be "whimsical." We managed to be the best of friends, but also loved each other intensely. Remarkably, we somehow held our relationship together through the waves of pubescent instability, got married when we were 21, and now are trying to pass as real-live grown ups.

As we were sipping wine and enjoying steaming plates of fresh pasta (good thing it wasn't a first date- Micah had speghetti), we started talking about what our 16-year-old selves would say if they could see us now. I really think 16-year-old Heather would be surprised about 3 things. First of all, I would have been shocked to learn that I didn't graduate from college until I was 28. I was very driven in school- always an honors student and I had never doubted that I would get my degree right out of high school. But I would be glad to hear I did finish, even if it was a little behind my ideal timeline.

The second surprise/relief would be that Micah came around to the idea of having kids. At that early stage in our relationship, Micah was absolutely terrified of children-- sometimes even the sight of a baby would literally send him into the corner rocking in the fetal position. I didn't really want to date someone I couldn't see myself marrying and I had always knew I would be a mom someday so this was actually a serious point of tension and conflict in our relationship for the first couple years that we dated. 16-year-old Heather would be pleased as punch to know that not only did Micah eventually want to have kids, but he would be an incredible father. I don't know if I would have believed that he regularly volunteers in the church nursery as well and that babies adore him.

The third shocker would be that Micah had not only graduated from college before me, but that he had completed his master's degree and was a high school math and science teacher. I think this revelation would have given 16-year-old Heather an incredulous fit of disbelief. I mean this in the nicest way, but Micah was a complete slacker in high school. He barely passed his classes and graduated with barely a 2.0 gpa. He was clearly brilliant, but he was completely unmotivated at school and had very little ambition for his life. Part of our draw to each other was that we weren't sell outs- we walked a different line from everyone else. 16-year-old Micah would see being a teacher as being a serious square. We weren't totally rebels by any means, but Micah did reject "the establishment" and we playfully disdained "The Man."

We were brushing our teeth before bed the other night and I was looking at our reflections in the mirror. Suddenly, I was overcome with how fast time passes. How can this be? Are we really 29 years old? Parents of two children? People with degrees and careers? And we are living in Colorado? I'm sure this will happen all throughout our lives as we grow older. Our children will grow up, and we will be left wondering, "how the heck did this happen so fast?" Sometimes I still feel like I am 16-year-old Heather, dancing in the rain with my Strawberry Shortcake lunch box, writing terrible poetry and not having a care in the world about what people think of me. But with all the incredible transformations that have happened to us over the years and to the world around us, one thing has remained: I still love that crazy boy in rollerskates.