Meeting Anniversary Confusion

Meeting Anniversary Confusion

..632 word count


Sam Adams was always a bit confused over when to celebrate his first date with his wife Maria Lee.

He first met her in a High school Physics class in Berkeley when he was a senior in high school. He fell asleep in class after lunch. He had the first dream that afternoon. In the dream, he saw her standing next to him speaking in a strange Asian language

She smiled, mesmerizing him with love blazing from her eyes as she put a spell on him, her love mojo working overtime..

. He yelled out,
‘
“Who are you?”

and woke up on the floor of the classroom. He told his friends the story

“I just met the girl I am destined to marry.”

It was in early May, 1974.

The dreams continued for almost eight years. He knew that he was going to met and marry her someday. She told him in a dream that she was in Korea waiting for him and he joined the Peace Corps and looked for her. He never met her and was getting ready to return to the States to go to graduate school in Korean studies at the University of Washington when he had the last dream.

It was on September 7th, 1982 right after labor day. He had started a new job with a new college teaching ESL for Koreans working with the US Army, and basic skills for enlisted personnel. In those days, the US Army did not require HS graduation to join, and anyone who tested deficient in basic reading and math skills had to take remedial classes to continue to serve. Sam was quite busy teaching all over Korea. But he felt that it was a dead-end job and he needed to get a master's degree and a steady career going.



That morning he had the last dream. She said,


“Don’t worry. We’ll meet soon”

She walked off a bus that night. She was a college senior who had gone to his base to apply for a secretarial position as she was graduating soon and looking for full time employment. Her English was quite good.

They met and it was love at first sight for both of them. The next day she was waiting for him at the gate of his base and said she had to talk with him. He signed her on so she could study then they went to a coffee shop and had their first “date”. She said that she was madly in love with him and that he was hers. He told he felt the same. The next few days he was off and they met every day. On Sunday he promposed to her and they began planning to get married.

They married two months later at the US Embassy and got married at the Korean Army base where he was now employed teaching ESL to Korean Army officers going to the US for advanced training in a residential program. Their marriage was a huge event. Over a thousand people came to their wedding as it was the first time an international couple got married on a Korean Army base, and his father, a former Undersecretary of Labor came to the wedding.

Sam could not decide what would be their anniversary date. September 7? October 29th (when they registered their marriage?) or January 9th? When they had their formal wedding?

Maria did not care. She said every day was an anniversary date for her. 39 years later he finally told her that they should do something special on September 7th the anniversary of when they met and they went out for a nice steak dinner after a long walk. That became their anniversary date tradition.

Based on our true love story.