“Just The Way You Are”

It was nine years ago today that we joined hands, and exchanged vows in front of 189 beloved family and friends. It was an exhaustingly long day of preserving traditions and honoring two different cultures. One side was Vietnamese and Buddhist from Massachusetts, and the other was Korean and Catholic from New Jersey. It was not a Romeo and Juliet story per se, but there was trials and tribulations along the way.

Through five years of courtship, our love endures many obstacles, like any other relationships, and the bond grows stronger every single day that we’re together.

As I reminisce, I can’t help but smile blissfully with my heart skips a beat of a wonderful man that I married, my hubbie, my soulmate, and my ying to my yang, trite as this might sound.

To say we were college sweethearts is not exactly accurate. We’ve known each other off and on since Freshman year, had similar classes together, bumped into each other on occasion on campus, but we were just friends…so we thought.

Fast forward to Senior year when he asked me to a Homecoming dance agreeing to go just as friends. One of my “rules” was never to date people I either go to school or work with. Although it was a big college, we still have common friends and the thought of losing those friends in the case of a break up was not something I was willing to compromise (insert a big sigh of relief from my parents here).

Unbeknownst to me, the “fire” was already lit in his mind after the dance. He has no shame in confessing later that it was my long hair that attracted him to me and not my “bubbly” personality at all. Yeah, he’s classy like that.

To make a long story short, a brief fling (a month before graduation) morphed into a long distance relationship for 2 years until he we decided it was too much to bear and off he moved to Boston (to the chagrin of his parents) and the rest, as they say, is history.

Our shoulders touched, my hand grasped tightly in yours, and our misty eyes captivated each other as we danced to our first song of “Just The Way You Are” by Billy Joel (As a side note: This album has got to be his best works ever before Christie Brinkley pulled the Yoko Ono on him, that’s my theory and I’m sticking to it!)

This song pretty much sums up our relationship, one of love, joy, happiness, respect, humour, and passion.

“Don’t go changing, and try to please me”

You have always been true to yourself and to me. You are fair and virtuous but have never pretended to be perfect.

“I wouldn’t leave you in times of trouble”

As cliche as this might sound, through thick and thin, you have been the stronger force behind our relationship. The anchor to my ship when I was ready to pull from the dock. Thank you for all the times you had to hold my hair back (in the loo) after too many “Rum & Cokes”.

“I take you just the way you are”

Thank you for loving me just the way I am, all my stubborness, my imperfections, my impetuousness, my forthrightness, my phobias and most importantly, my best Shrek’s impression of bodily sounds.

You assured me that everything will be ok and not to look down on our first parachuting trip on our honeymoon in Mauii. With my heart in my throat, my hands gripping the ropes tightly hanging on to dear life, we tackle my fear of heights together. I survived and was so proud of myself for attempting that difficult feat, and all because of you, my hubbie!!

“You always have my unspoken passion”

You never cease to amaze me with how much you shower me with your love and attention. On my 22nd birthday, you drove four hours to attend a surprised party for me and then drove home the same night for work in the morning (is that crazy or what?!). How about the time you drove up for the weekend (while we were still doing the long distance thing) and walked 20 miles with me in The Walk for Hunger.

Not only are you a passionate hubbie, you’re also a great father to our three pride and joy. You never shy away from diaper duty, or bath duty. Our sons are so lucky to have a diehard Star Wars fan, who is never too busy to role play with them. And not to mention that Sophia can imitate that “lightsaber” sound at 18 month old while swinging her brothers’ lightsaber back and forth (stop the madness!).

“I don’t want clever conversation. I never want to work that hard.”

We never had the need to work at our conversations. There simply is not enough time to talk about everything and it’s never redundant. I love our pillow talks nightly. Even when you’re away on business trips, you’d never forget to stay in touch, even if it’s through “IM”. Thank goodness for technology! And I knew you were the one, I would spend the rest of my life with, when there was never an awkward silence moment between us.

So to simply put in Billy Joel’s words:

“I said I love you, and that’s forever

And this I promise from the heart

I could not love you any better

I love you just the way you are.”

Happy anniversary Arthur. Here’s to many more happy and passionate years ahead. I love you with all my heart and soul!

Your loving wife, aka “bundle of joy”!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 13th, 2006 at 1:00 am and is filed under GENERAL, MY LIFE. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.