Do you remember the thrill of a first date? Do you remember that stirring in your chest when you stood on the threshold of the unknown, the wind of possibilities at your back, the fire of righteous intent in your very bones?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I remember. I also remember walking up the steps to Esther\u2019s front door, muttering to myself, \u201cI am going to mess this up so hard<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have never been particularly good with dates. In the first place, I have often lacked the courage to actually ask someone on<\/em> a date, which, as it turns out, is an important step in the process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the second place, I have never possessed that peculiar mixture of creativity and cool, invested indifference which at once selects the most interesting activities yet acts as if this were just any other day of the week. \u201cWhy, yes, I do <\/em>go skydiving every Saturday before sipping champagne on a boat at sunset. Don\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But with Esther I wanted all that to change. Not that I had any plans to go skydiving, mind you, but I did want to step up my game and give her a memorable evening with a suave gentleman. So, I took my time and began planning out the evening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our date needed to be simple, yet sophisticated. How about a nice Mexican bistro? Not that cheap, taco-truck level food but something with a little more flare and elegance? A restaurant with some ambience and a menu that forgets to put the dollar signs by the price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I searched the internet for Mexican bistros in our area and found a restaurant which had been rated as the best Mexican food around. There were no pictures of the interior of the restaurant, which was curious, but all the local papers gave it five stars. Brilliant. I congratulated myself on a fine choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next we would go for coffee. All the best dating advice I could find recommended going to a coffee shop rather than to a movie or some similar activity. This way you and your date could engage in actual conversation and not have your attention drawn away towards something else. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ah, but I could not simply take this woman to Starbucks<\/em>. That would not be elegant at all. So I did a little more research and found a local coffee shop that seemed to have just the amount of sophistication I was looking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The night of our first date finally arrived. I donned a sport coat, picked out a music playlist that seemed fitting for the evening, and headed over to pick her up in my now-clean Toyota Corolla (pure sophistication).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those old doubts crept into my thoughts as I pulled into her driveway. But I brushed them aside. No, I will not mess this up. I have a plan. I am a twenty-something year old grad student with a sport coat and a plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had doom<\/em> written on my forehead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our date got off to a great start. She was beautiful, and talking to her was the most natural exercise in the world. We floated across the river to our first destination on silver balloons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet when we arrived at the address the air let out of those balloons; the building looked like a warehouse. All those doubts returned, only now they carried the pang of certain failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We followed the signs and entered the restaurant only to be greeted with an interior that had all the sophistication of a Taco Bell<\/em>. A man wearing a visor hat and a gaudy yellow t-shirt with the restaurant\u2019s logo on it greeted us from behind a stack of styrofoam cups at the front counter. Cheap booths with hard plastic chairs populated the dining area. The evening news was showing on the several TVs hung in the corners of the room, all competing loudly with the radio which was set to a local Hispanic station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We ordered our tacos and I sat defeated. Thankfully, once again, our conversation was great and I could almost ignore the fact that we were hugely overdressed for the occasion compared to the other clientele. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hope was not lost. There was still coffee. And what\u2019s more, Esther did not seem to mind the major fumble. Onwards and upwards, then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heading to the coffee shop, I was convinced that I knew where it was. Confidence proved to be my downfall here, too, because the longer we drove the more I started to get that unsettled feeling that we should have arrived already. When I was sure we had driven too far, I turned around. Only then I had the same problem, because driving too far in the opposite direction brought us closer to where we started, and that was not right at all either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After several minutes scanning the businesses up and down the street and making turns only to backtrack the way we had been going, I finally pulled into a parking lot where all the storefronts were closed and where clearly no one should be walking alone at night, and I confessed to Esther that I was lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI thought I knew where this place was,\u201d I said, completely embarrassed. \u201cObviously that isn\u2019t the case. In fact, I\u2019m a little lost. But I think I can get us somewhere for coffee.\u201d And then I said, \u201cWe\u2019re on an adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She just smiled at me and said, with a touch of excitement, \u201cI like adventures.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
I did not know it at the time, but those words would prove to be an apt description of our life together. After nearly a decade, now married with two children, we are still on an adventure and have loved every moment of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The spirit of adventure lies in the thrill of the unknown. It thrives on new challenges and feeds on the never-ending quest for fresh horizons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Adventure keeps us young. Adventure reminds us that we are human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking back on the past ten years, the heartache and triumph, the sorrow and joy, I am so grateful to God who, in His grace, has given Esther and me the chance to walk the hidden paths together. I look back, and I am suddenly exhilarated for what new adventures lie ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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