Garrett M. Vonk

Monday, July 10th, was our second wedding anniversary. It seems like the human tendency is to use anniversaries as a kind of yardstick. Has it really been two years? That one feels about right. It’s been an eventful two years–since July 2004, I’m on my third job (and third home).

But in the grand scheme of things, it’s a pretty short time. While many marriages are shorter, my parents hit 31 years in January. I’ve had cell phone contracts that lasted 2 years. We’ve had our cat for longer than that. Yes, in terms of yardsticks, while I’m happy to have hit this milestone, and I’m even more excited about the years ahead of us, it doesn’t seem like very long.

More striking, I think, is that as of July 17th, I’ve been with Heather for 10 years. We began our relationship in July of 1996, when the Olympics were in town. The newspaper last weekend read “Games Changed Everything”, with the expected retrospective pieces on the commercial and cultural growth Atlanta experienced during the years on either side of 1996. Somewhere in my closet, I have the newspaper from the Opening Ceremonies, 10 years ago. Metaphorically, it’s as if these two papers are the coming and going of a comet, a steadfast chronological ticker that returns to earth after a decade and finds that much has changed.

And yet, you could throw both newspapers in the same pile in the closet because they both represent that which is finished. Heather and I have laughed and cried for these 10 years together, and have shared our lives in ways that are always intensifying in an exciting manner. It’s invigorating to pass the 10-year mark, and it makes me a little nostalgic.

Anyway, as I’ve said many times, I love you, Heather. Thanks for the best 10 years of my life.