2/14/23

Rebecca and I recently celebrated our 30th anniversary which came shortly after my 50th birthday. I have never been great at math but even I can figure out that I have been married most of my life. We have quite literally grown up together. I can still remember vividly the first time I saw her and in many ways that was the day I stopped being a child and became a man, because that was the day I stopped putting myself first and prioritized her needs above my own. Today is Valentine’s Day which is a big deal to many but not so much for us. We used to stress ourselves out trying to go out and fight the crowd eating out or going to the movies but after about the first five or so years we threw in the towel and gave up V-day celebrations. The last attempt I recall we went to about three restaurants that had 2-3 hour waits. I still remember looking at Rebecca and she looked back at me, she then asked if I just wanted to go to McDonald’s to which I responded thank you. There was one other attempt in the last 10 years. I was going to surprise my beloved by sending flowers to her work. People who know us would all agree she is the “responsible one” which means she handles the finances. 15 minutes after I placed the order for her flowers I got an angry phone call from her wanting to know who I was sending flowers to. After I asked her if she got an alert every time I used my debit card (which would be a reasonable thing for her to do) I explained to her that she was the person I was sending flowers to which made her feel horrible for ruining the surprise. So yeah, we don’t go crazy for Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day is only one of 365 days that make up a whole year. One of the things in my life that I take the most pride in is my relationship with my wife and that after 30 years I still want to celebrate our love the entire year and not just one day. Happy Valentine’s Day everyone- don’t stress yourselves out celebrating, just enjoy loving either the person you’re with or just loving the people in your life.