Fairy Tale

Once upon a time there was a young man who went to college. He was smart and good looking. Many people at school had High Hopes for him. A number of pretty young ladies approached him and assured him that they would be thrilled to let him do all the thinking for both of them for as long as he cared to stay around, and would never interfere with his right to be the boss and make all the decisions for them.

He couldn't run away fast enough.

One day he noticed a girl who was different. She was quiet, usually angry, and didn't bother trying to please the people around her. And she was always arguing. She was considered weird, pushy, sharp-tongued, four-eyed, fat, too smart for her own good, standoffish and borderline mental by their classmates and teachers. He began trying to draw her out of her shell.

She thought he was playing games with her. Other people had, and her defenses were set at maximum. But over time he convinced her of his sincerity and drew out her quirky sense of humor.

The whole school was in shock. They didn't want to see this promising young man hooked up with a girl who was sure to come to a Bad End. An awful lot of people took it upon themselves to try to convince the boy that this girl was so Wrong For Him. They predicted the marriage wouldn't last a year.

Today we've been married 17 years.

Oddly enough, many of the people who tried to break us up back then are now on their second or third marriages. Most have never married at all.

Moral: Be yourself.