Where were you nineteen years ago? Were you with friends? Hard at work? Far away? Were you even born? Nineteen years ago today I was marrying my one true love.
Coincidentally, I was nineteen years old nineteen years ago today. Just kids, or so they said. But, old enough to serve my country. Old enough to drink (the drinking age was actually 19 where I was stationed!) and certainly old enough to know I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.
It's a funny thing to divide your life in half like this. Half a child, half an adult. Half being cared for by my parents, half caring for someone else. But calling it "this half" and "that half" casts the wrong impression. It makes it appear as if the two halves make a whole. A whole life, in this case. And that is not the situation. My life isn't over, not by a long shot. And neither are my rendezvous with interesting mathematical combinations. Someday, I hope to sit, sipping wine and a ponder the significance of having been married TWICE as long as I was once single. And perhaps, if I remain as lucky (not to mention faithful and diligent) as I have been, I will be able to claim three times the length of matrimony as bachelorhood.
I will certainly enjoy the journey, regardless of the multiplier.