The Anniversary Post: Part I
The Best Stranger I Ever Talked To

Five and a half years ago, I was a tiny 14 year old taking public transit by myself for the first time. I was alone, going to and from a high school where I knew maybe 7 people. I had made some friends in my classes and recognized them at the bus stop, but I didn't dare sit next to them. They had all been friends since elementary school and had lots of things to talk about. I sat alone at the front, near the bus driver; I felt safer there, just in case anything happened. What the bus driver couldn't prevent was someone else sitting next to me.

Hi.
Hi.
My name is Jason.
Mm.
What's yours?
Shirley.

He made me have a conversation with him. I hesitantly told him about my new classes and teachers, looking out the window as often as I could to signal my level of uncomfort with the situation. He didn't seem to notice.

I saw him on the bus nearly every day after that. In the mornings before Music Council meetings, and after school. I sat far away from him every time, near the front, but he always got up from where he was at the back and sat down next to me. Always with the talking.

After a while, I got used to him and we became friends. Then I became the one who wanted to sit next to him, wanted to talk to him, to hear about his life and various goings-on. I wanted to work with him, share with him, be with him. To this day, I can't pinpoint when it was that I fell for this boy, but I did. And lucky me, he felt the same way too.

He's still as cute and handsome as ever (maybe more so now that he's lost the braces), still goofishly funny, and he never ceases to surprise me with his intelligence, faith and love. I thank both our parents for conceiving and giving birth to us, the various people in our lives that brought us to that bus stop, the driver for driving that route, whoever it was that decided we should both have vocal chords...fate for bringing us together.

Happy Anniversary dear.

12:11 pm