10/10/10

I just wanted to give a shout out to October 10, 2010 today. I just realized yesterday that the first twelve years of this century will be the only ones when we will have dates like 10/10/10 or 08/08/08 or 12/12/12. It's kind of unique and interesting (and I guess it took me all of ten years to think it all that interesting).

Speaking of tens, what were you doing ten years ago? In October 2000, I had just transferred from Baylor to Rice and was settling into my new life. I was incredibly stressed out by the work load (a far call from my much easier and far less time-consuming schedule from my first two years at Baylor), and my best friend and roomie, Sarah, sat me down one day and made me take time out to watch that incredibly sophisticated and academically stimulating TV show, Seventh Heaven. Eating grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup while watching Seventh Heaven became a Monday night routine for the two of us for a long time.

Another thing I was doing in October 2000 was running. I ran more and was in better shape that semester than I had ever been before or have been since. I was running about three miles two or three times a week, and I felt (and looked) great. I'd love to work back up to that.

Another very important event happened in October 2000 that ended up determining a course for my life, though I had no idea of its repercussions at the time. Ten years ago this month, I asked Nathan Benesh to go to Esperanza with me (a girl-ask-guy formal). I considered asking one of my guy friends from Baylor, since I knew I'd have fun with someone I knew. But Sarah encouraged me to ask someone at Rice so that I'd start making community at my new school, which proved to be very fortuitous advice!

To ask him to the dance, I sent Nathan an e-card with a poem on it:
His answer could not have been more perfect:
As soon as I got that e-card in my inbox, I gasped in delight and waited about four seconds before I called Sarah. When she picked up, I said, "I think we have a winner!!!"

I loved that he wrote a poem back in kind. And that it was funny. And that he said yes and didn't make me feel like a fool.

Do you ever think about what your ten-years-ago self would think of what your life looks like now? Sometimes, I put myself back in my 21-year-old mind and think, "If someone had told me then what I would be doing now, how amazed I'd have been!" Ten years ago, I'd have looked askance at you if you'd told me that I'd get to spend a summer in college studying abroad at Cambridge, that I'd have married that cute guy I just asked to Esperanza, that I'd spend six years in Boston and that my husband would get his Ph.D. at Harvard, that I'd have two (or more?) beautiful kids and would not have gone to grad school but would choose to stay at home with them, and so on.

I wonder what I'll be doing ten years from now. Probably taking my twelve year old to his seventh grade class and my ten year old to her fifth grade class. (Crazy!)