Ten years ago … I think we were meant to be

Tuesday night, if you remember, was Institute night for me and so exactly one week from that fateful night where I first laid eyes on the love of my life, I ran into her again on my way to Institute. Those people who knew me before I got married will attest that I did not have any skills with the ladies, and had I met Clarissa going opposite directions on the sidewalk under different circumstances I probably would have gotten nervous, muttered a greeting under my breath as we passed and then cursed myself for a missed opportunity at talking to a beautiful girl that I really liked. On this occasion however, I noticed Clarissa was crying and, moved by compassion, I stopped and asked her if she was okay and if I could help her. She smiled a little, thanked me for my concern, said she was ok and walked on while I went on to Institute. As I sat in Institute half listening to the speakers I remember having this powerful feeling that I needed to go talk to Clarissa. At first I dismissed the feeling thinking I was just some strange guy who had shown her how to turn her lights on the night before and why would she want to talk to me, but I just couldn't shake the feeling. I remember thinking to myself, “Do I need to leave right now, in the middle of this class?” I stayed but I was so compelled to go see Clarissa that I practically jumped up and ran to her apartment as soon as the meeting ended. I knocked on her door and was promptly greeted by her friend…yes that one, and in the intervening week they had become roommates. I asked if I could come in and I talked to her friend for a little while, telling her about seeing Clarissa and asking if she was okay. Clarissa told me later that she had fallen asleep, but woke up in time to hear my voice and came out to the living room. The three of us talked for hours after that. I found out that Clarissa had just returned from being a counselor at church youth camp for a week and was having a hard time coming down from the spiritual high of teaching teenagers about the gospel and life for a week. She had been crying because she had just come back from talking to the ward Bishop (equivalent to a pastor for anyone not familiar with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) about how much she loved and missed that experience. We moved on to other topics and eventually were joined by one of my roommates who entertained us with his theories on women and dating*. We were laughing and having a good time, and I found that as much as Clarissa’s tears broke my heart, her smile, laughter and compassion melted it back together again. At some point we decided to make a late-night run for some ice cream. The four of us piled into Clarissa’s friend/roommate’s car, went to get some ice cream, and when we came back we said goodnight. Leaving that night I was really hoping to get another chance or find another excuse to go talk to Clarissa again. I didn't realize that at that moment my wallet was sitting on the back seat of her roommate’s car.

*I still remember the barnacle theory, which postulates that in some relationships where people are of unequal attractiveness levels (this stemmed from another theory on inter-dating between the 10 different levels of attractiveness) the least attractive of the couple was successful by deploying a barnacle-like strategy. It usually started with the more attractive party rejecting romantic advances by the less attractive party, but, out of kindness, agreeing to be friends with said barnacle. At this point, the barnacle grabs on for dear life and spends all possible time with the object of their affection, to the point that everyone around them thinks that the two are a couple. The beauty in this case sees a significant drop off in the number of potential dates that come calling as those dates think that the beauty is taken and stop trying. Feeling the blow of the drop in potential dates/candidates, said Beauty begins to notice the barnacle. As it turns out, the barnacle is nice, pays attention to Beauty, and, while not particularly attractive, is still an option in Beauty’s now significantly reduced prospects. Beauty then agrees to Barnacle's advances and before Beauty knows it they have seven or eight somewhat attractive children.