Most of the time when people talk about taking a risk and stepping outside of their comfort zone, it is often times related to business/career goals. But when was the last time you took a risk on love? When is the last time you took a step way outside of your comfort zone all in the name of love? I’m not talking about sending a cutesy text or publishing a profile on a dating website. I’m talking about the kind of risk that makes your heart explode through your chest; the kind that makes you forget to stop breathing; the kind that makes you think you just might die if you proceed with said risk.
Well I definitely felt ALL of these things when I took the biggest love risk of my life. I have always loved the month of April, for the simple fact that I get to celebrate my birthday…all month long! But I will never forget April 11, 1999. It was the day that my boyfriend (now hubby extraordinaire) asked me to be his girlfriend. I couldn’t even put into words how happy I was that day. But see, it was the ultimate risk I had taken in April the year before that opened up the door for this question to be asked in the first place.
Let me go back and bit and say that we went to the same high school, him graduating a year before me. Even after he graduated, we continued to keep in touch. I always had a crush on him in high school, but allowed other losers to cloud my vision. He was the guy that everyone liked and was drawn to because he was just a cool guy…and naturally funny (and he still has me in stitches all the time). So although I was crushed that he didn’t ask me to his prom (although in hindsight…I’m really not sure why I ever thought that he would. LOL), I knew there was only one person I wanted to take to my prom. I knew that if I didn’t go with him, then I wasn’t going to go…and heck, it wasn’t like I had guys banging down my door to ask me anyway. LOL.
My prom was May 12, 1999 (I think), and I was so scared to ask him that I literally pushed it off until the last minute (as in the very end of April). I kept trying to come up with a plan B for the “What if he says no?” question. It finally got to the point that a very good friend of mine got tired of me stressing about it, and pretty much had to threaten me to pick up the phone and ask him. I don’t even remember what I said, but my gosh I wanted to about die when he answered the phone that day. I don’t know how I managed to stumble through my words or even hear an answer over the pounding of my own heart, but I did. And he said yes, without any hesitation. I played it cool only until we hung up the phone. But then I immediately called my girlfriend screaming “He said yes! He said yes!”.
From the time he took me to prom, until the day he asked me to be his girlfriend (or as I say, the day he came to his senses) our friendship grew deeper. When I went away to college that summer, we kept in touch very often, most times by writing letters back and forth (real letters…you know, the kind that involve a pen, paper and a stamp) which I still love to look back on. It was during a weekend visit home from school, that he popped that sweet question to me. And like they say…the rest is history.
So after 19 years of friendship (Yikes!), and almost 8 years of marriage, I often wonder what would’ve happened if I hadn’t taken that risk? Let’s not get it twisted: me asking him to my prom? Asking any guy to go out anywhere for that matter, was a huge risk for me at that time! But I thank God because it has definitely resulted in the most rewarding and amazing risk of my life. It resulted in a lifetime of happiness and some adorable offspring. I would’ve definitely done it a hundred times over again.
BMWK: When was the last time you took a risk on love? Or what was the love risk you took that changed your life for the better?