His and Hers IV
His and Hers is a question or discussion topic relating to marriage that I post every Tuesday or Wednesday. On Friday, my wife and I each write our thoughts on the topic. I invite other bloggers to do the same with their spouses as an exercise in celebrating marriage.
What was your initial impression of your spouse when you first met him/her?
Curt's response
I moved to Georgetown, Texas (just north of Austin) during the summer before my junior year in college. I lived with my grandparents all that summer, and when I visited their church for the first time, my future wife was in my Sunday school class. She made no impression on me at all. Her friends made a big impression on me, though. They were the friendliest, most accepting group I had ever met, almost immediately accepting me into their circle as if they had known me since grade school, as most of them had known each other. Throughout that summer I got to know them all fairly well. At summer's end, though, they all dispersed to their various universities, leaving only me and the Happy Acquaintance alone with only each other for company.
I remember the first time she did make an impression on me. She taught Sunday school one week during my first summer in Georgetown. Before class started, she and I were in the classroom with three other people: another guy, a frumpy girl, and a tall, well-groomed, impeccably dressed and highly attractive girl (all college-age, of course). What made me take notice of the eventual Mrs. Happy that day was the way she treated each of the other girls. The frumpy one she treated with a mixture of respect, interest, and recognition of humanity. The tall, well-groomed, impeccably dressed and highly attractive one she treated with a mixture of respect, interest, and recognition of humanity. With the frumpy one, there was no hint of superiority or condescension. With the other, no hint of jealousy or intimidation. I don't believe I had ever noticed someone so comfortable with themselves or confident in their existence.
The second time she made an impression on me was more superficial, but almost as powerful. We went to the lake with the Sunday school class one weekend, and I saw her in a bathing suit. I remember thinking that her everyday wardrobe really did not do her justice.
She made many more powerful impressions on me over the next few years, and continues to do so. But my experience with her taught me that first impressions can be overcome, and thank God for that.
Mrs. Happy's response
Yes, indeed—thank God that first impressions can be overcome, because my first impression of Curt was that he was a total dud. I have but one vivid image of his first morning in Sunday school—he was sitting stiffly in a chair, with every bendable limb positioned at 90ยบ. His oddly pointy facial features seemed permanently fixed in an unnaturally serious expression. In fact, he was the most angular person I had ever seen, and geometry was not my favorite subject.
It wasn't until we started eating lunch together in college that I really started to see Curt as a person—the warm, sensitive, loving man that he is. As our friendship grew, his angles softened and we became inseparable, complementing each other in every way, and that is how we remain to this day.
