25 Years?! Where did it all begin?

Have you ever sat and wondered, how did I get here?  I am not referring to the walking you did, to reach the chair where you sat, and then the mouse you clicked (or phone button you pushed) to get to this page.  But rather, what are some of life's seemingly little random events, each of which happened to go (and quite honestly, had to go) a certain way, in a certain order, all to arrive at this exact moment in your life.  I imagine very few take the time to ponder these deep questions.  Maybe philosophy majors or deep spiritual thinkers might, but rarely I imagine does the everyday man or woman seriously give 1 minute of thought to such a question. 

Well, this week will mark my 25th wedding anniversary to my soul mate, my best friend, my better half, and the owner of the beautiful face I get to awaken beside every morning; my wife, Donna.  Indeed the "silver" anniversary marks the passage of some significant time. Yet, despite the passage of all that time, I can still recall, with absolute clarity, the string of random events which led us to today.

So, how did we get here?  Actually, it all begins with a friend from middle school and high school, named Chris H.  It was my senior year at Leon, and I had just purchased a car with help from my parents and my summer job at Wendys.  However, with school starting I could not keep working the 20:00-02:00 shift.  I needed to find a new job to pay for my gas and any extra activities.  Chris, my dear friend since the 7th grade, told me to come apply at Chick-Fil-A in the Tallahassee Mall where he worked.  I did.  After an interview, I got hired to work during the Christmas shopping season, with the chance to stay longer if I proved valuable to their team.  I began work right around Black Friday, 1984. 

However, the date which really has led me to this exact place in time and history is December 15, 1984. I found myself working a Saturday breakfast & lunch shift.  I worked those, and sometimes dinner & closing shifts.  I have no idea why the schedule had been done like that, but it proved key.  During my shift, a pretty young girl was also working.  She was very quiet, very shy, and thus far, immune to any flirting I may have attempted.  I came to the back during a lull in the counter traffic to get a drink.  This pretty girl was washing some of the pans we had just used to make yet another batch of chicken.  Somehow in the course of that particular conversation, this shy, unassuming girl mentioned she was staying over at a friend's house that weekend, and the friend had a pool and a hot tub.  Would I like to come over after work and swim? 

Duh.  A pretty girl asks you out and offers to wear swimwear to boot?  To this day, I think Donna and I both wonder: did someone travel back in time, and either assume her identity for a moment, or somehow "mind control" her into asking?  It was so unlike her.  She had literally never dated a guy before.  Of course, this is where “divine intervention” is also in play.

Needless to say, over a batch of soapy dishes and smelly chicken, I said the first of many important "yeses" in my life. 

We made our plans and indeed, that evening I went over to her friend's house and we never even made it to the pool.  No, get your mind out of the gutter!  We sat on that couch, talking, for hours and hours.  You know in life there are rare moments in time where you can simply relate and talk to someone and it transcends the normal and becomes something magical.  You click.  We did.  Nothing more complicated or Hollywooded up than that.  I can't recall much else about that weekend, but I do know I was at least smart enough to ask her out for the following weekend. 

From there began a long road of (my stupid) breakups, get back togethers, breakups, get back togethers and eventually, in 1989 my realization that I simply could not live without Donna by my side through what was yet to come.  Being a remarkably unromantic idiot, I simply proposed after an FSU football game, while overlooking a lake at a park.  Then, on March 24, 1990, in front of friends and family at Temple Baptist Church, the two became one. 

The seemingly "for show" act of taking 2 candles and using them to light a single bigger candle is indeed the perfect metaphor for what transpired that day 25 years ago.  I have been blessed far, far, beyond what I deserve since that day.  Together we have been through the births of our two wonderful children (Amanda and Sam), through health scares, rough times financially, the deaths of loved ones and friends, travelled to some amazing places, met some amazing people, and indeed we are still strolling along life's road holding the hand which we first gripped that Saturday night back in December 1984.

Not long ago, we went together to the Tallahassee Mall and saw where the Chick-Fil-A which had been there for nearly 30 years, had closed.  We were sad, but grateful the restaurant was untouched as yet in being torn down.  Perhaps it was fate.  We posed for a picture, not quite in the exact spots we had been nearly 30 years before, but as close as we could get considering the doors to the back were locked.  That spot and that moment in history are the precise fourth dimensional coordinates (Hey, I had to get some Sci-Fi in here somewhere) which began the string of events which led directly to Amanda and Sam Jacobs ever existing, and to the beginning of making my life more significant, more meaningful, and more special, and most of all as blessed as it is today. 

So, yes, I can appreciate those seemingly small random events and moments:.  The friend who had the suggestion to apply, because he already worked there and knew they were still looking for help.  The owner who hired a green, overly self-confident high school senior, not in the Lincoln Band like nearly everyone else on that crew, with the recommendation of that employee.  The intersection of our work schedules, just happening to align that Saturday.  The friend inviting Donna to stay over that weekend, so there would be a pool and hot tub available for swimming.  And of course, whatever spark inspired a shy, quiet, pretty girl named Donna to ask this lucky boy named Grant to come over after work. 

Yes, I can very much take a moment this weekend to ponder exactly how some sequence of events just happened to align and lead me to exactly where I am today, married to the most amazing woman God ever put upon this earth.  I love you Donna Jacobs!  Yes, we have a few more days to go until the magic 25 is upon us.  But in the quiet today I wanted to share my appreciation with my friends of exactly how all those small, random events led to one very important moment in time, our forthcoming 25th Wedding Anniversary! 

Happy (Almost) 25th Anniversary Babe!

The alluded to picture of us in the old Chick-Fil-A, mere feet from where it all began.