33 years ago today, some very relieved parents said hello to the newest member of their amazing family, and one of the most important people in my life, only she and I wouldn't know it for quite some time.
Pam was born in Provo, and began her life in a home, where she grew up in, and has lived within a few miles drive of, her entire life.
There's a chance, a small chance but a chance none the less, that Pam and I originally met at Edgemont grade school where we both attended Kindergarten and First Grade at the same time. We have yet to uncover those old class photos, but how amazing it is to me to think that we have been tied that closely together since the age of 5. Not that any 5 year old would appreciate a bond like this, but like magnets we have been constantly drawn to each other our entire lives.
Perhaps we were in the same classroom in 1st Grade 26 years ago when the class wished Pam a Happy 7th Birthday!
Somehow, our bond was to be strengthened a few times by several long stretches of separation. Now this is a hard thing to explain and I of all people will have trouble describing the effect our times apart have had on our relationship. But suffice it to say that because of the paths our lives have led, Pam and I are more solidly, more happily and more compatibly linked together than is imaginable. I can't imagine my life without Pam now and I can't remember my life without her then.
After 1st grade, we were not to meet again in life until one day in August, in I believe 1991. It was our Sophomore year in High School and the most amazing person sat just behind me in Health class. It's hard to describe the feeling of your destiny arriving and sitting directly behind you in class every day. It's a completely intoxicating, distracting, invigorating, totally unstoppably irreversibly maddening and frustrating feeling. Why couldn't I be the one with the good view??
I think I knew already, from the first time (or maybe, the long distant second time) I met Pam, that we were meant to if not permanently at least.... at least temporarily share in each others lives. I knew it so completely that I could do absolutely nothing at all to act on it. Girls then and Women more recently, are so intimidating, and Pam was no exception, in fact I think she was far, far more so than anyone else, because of the tingling, warm chills I would get whenever I saw her or heard her voice. She truly was and is the part of myself that I can't live without.
Then, the most necessary part of our young adult relationship happened. Pam asked me out, to a dance. Girls choice dances are the best invention the world has ever known... well that and Air Conditioning. ;) Because I am the kind of person who can't cross the lines first, I can't (nor have I ever, not once) ask the opposite sex out on a date. It's just not something I am capable of.
So with that, we were off and running, it was just the greatest thing to spend non Health Class time with Pam! You have no idea!
And then... Homecoming. A day I will never live down and have always regretted. Sorry my love!
After that, it wasn't until after High School that we reconnected. But we reconnected in a very strong way. I think we were pretty near inseparable for over 2 years. But our time hadn't yet arrived. We again were to separate, but this time for an incredibly long 12...ish years.
And then, at the ripe old age of 31, in the fall of 2007. A great numbered year in any world that involves Pam. An email shows up in my inbox. An email with a name attached that couldn't possibly be who it said it was. An email that I had unconsciously longed for, every time I reminisced about times long past. An email that changed my life forever. An email that consisted of only but one sentence.
And from that email, to our best times together yet, now with almost 3 amazing kids to share in our love, has been a very short amount of time, but, because of our history both together and apart, I cannot imagine, remember, or dream of a time in my life when Pam hasn't been right here, right where we were meant to be.
I realize that this is incredibly long, and to those of you still reading, the point of all this ramble is that today, much more than yesterday, yet not as much as tomorrow, I am so thankful to have Pam in my life. I mark one more year together in our lifetime with a hug, a kiss, and a ginormous grin on my face.
I LOVE YOU PAM! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
With all my heart. – Dan
P.S. - I hope that's blue text there!
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-Cindy