September 18, 2009 is a day that I will remember for the rest of my life. Not because I have to, because it will eventually be my wedding anniversary, but because it’s the day that my life will become complete. It’s going to be the day that I take Melissa Landolfi to be my beautiful bride. It’s the day that two formerly love scorned people will end their journey of wondering “if” and begin the journey of wondering what the next great adventure holds for us as one. It’s been a long road for me and I’m so glad that I went through the good and the bad to get to her because I don’t think I would be the person she deserves had I not grown throughout life.
I can’t say that I’ve ever been the type of guy that looked forward to getting married. Being a child of divorce I’m sure played the biggest role in my dismal views of tying the knot. I always felt that if things were going fine, why did you need to mess it up with getting married? Yeah that was me ladies - jealous? My justification for this thought process was pointing out the huge number of divorces that took place everyday in this country, especially people I knew. For example, I had a friend that was with his then girlfriend for 9 years. They had a child together after the first 6. They married going into their 10th year and divorced just 11 months after that! Was marriage the relationship killer? Why did they go through so many years of what appeared to be a successful existence only to end it all after less than a year of marriage? These are things that I would ponder.
At that point in my life I wasn’t seeing the big picture. I now understand that they always had problems and that turning to marriage was a last ditch effort to try and salvage what remained. I realized that it wasn’t the act of getting married that made people hate each other, but the people themselves going to the alter for the wrong reasons which was the issue. It wasn’t until I first saw Melissa’s picture on that cold January day that I had my own personal epiphany about love and marriage. It truly was love at first sight. It was as if Cupid himself took out a bazooka and blasted me with a direct shot in the chest. I was smitten from the word “go”.
Melissa will tell you to this day that when we first met and started our relationship, I wasn’t shy about professing my love for her or that I knew we’d be married someday. I would often tell her that she was the one for me. In fact there was a particular afternoon early on, when we sat at the bar in Twin Oaks and I said “I love you”. It was frightening to think that I may have ruined what was arguably the best thing that ever happened to me with a simple statement. After I panicked for a while Melissa reassured me that my words wouldn’t drive her away screaming. It was at this moment I knew it was for real.
September 18, 2009 will be the day that we prove to the world that love does exist as we exchange our vows on a beautiful white sand beach in Aruba. I’ve been waiting for her my whole life.
