I was rather
alone. I had just travelled across the country to eastern Idaho to go to
college. I had been given a partial track scholarship, so I knew the track
coach (sort of), but I knew no one else in the city. My parents had helped me
move into an apartment and had left to return to the Oregon Coast. I was alone.
But I had my music. My recently acquired Pat Benatar album kept me company. Pat,
And Tom Petty, and Pink Floyd, they were all my friends and helped me while away
the time and made me forget that I was alone. Soon I would start attending
classes, start getting together with my fellow track team members, and start my
part-time job in the cafeteria, but until then, the hours were empty.
I had scarcely
been there a day, my stereo blasting away, when I heard a knock at the door. It
was a pretty, dark-haired woman with a kind smile. She explained that she lived
directly upstairs and the previous tenants had been known to play their music at
all hours of the night, and could I keep it down after 9:00, because she worked
at the campus Post Office early every day. I told her that would not be a
problem. She asked me what classes I was taking. When I said one of them was
General Ecology, she said I could borrow her text book from last year.
As it turned
out, I could not use her textbook, as the professor said we had to use the new
edition. But it gave me an excuse to return her book to her. When you meet
someone, you never know if there will be a connection or not. I found this girl
attractive, but then, I found a lot of girls attractive. That did not mean I
would ever talk to them again. Relationships may or may not take. Something must have connected with this one.
She invited me to go mushroom hunting with her. I did not know a thing about
hunting mushrooms, but I went with her. Why wouldn’t I? As you have probably
guessed by now, a connection was made. She eventually became my wife, and we
have been married over forty years.
I don’t really
believe in soulmates in the classical sense, that there are people we are fated
to be with. What brought my wife and I together was luck. If my parents had
found a notice for a different apartment or if I had not been playing my music
that day, or any one of a hundred random events had been different, we would
not have met. So, I believe we make our own soulmates.
Comments
Post a Comment