In 1991, when I was 38, I placed a personal ad in a newspaper — this was before computers and cellphones — looking for a boyfriend.
Around a month later, I received a large envelope in the mail with interesting responses. There was one that really stood out.
Carefully designed like a humor-infused brochure, the title across the top said, “YOUR NEXT BOYFRIEND?” It included a picture, bullet points listing his attributes and interests, and lots of adorable graphics, including his drawing of a couple hugging that said, “Could this be us?” It was clever, creative, honest, and funny. In fact, it was so hilarious that I laughed out loud and thought to myself, “I have to meet this guy!”
My husband Jim and I have been married for almost 33 years.
We had lots of things in common
On our first date, we discovered we had many interests and ethics in common, and I could tell that he was genuine, sweet, funny, and a real gentleman.
He told me he lived on a boat (✓), loved to ride his bicycle and motorcycle (✓), and liked to travel to tropical places and scuba dive (✓✓). Also, he told me he had done a lot of solo adventures, traveling on his bicycle for months at a time in places like Australia and New Zealand. That really excited me — I had always wanted to travel like that. Also, neither of us wanted to have kids.
Our next date was a scenic bicycle ride along the water. On our third date, he took me for a ride on his motorcycle to a beautiful beach, and we shared our first kiss. On the way back, I had butterflies in my stomach, I knew something really wonderful was up. Now, almost 35 years later, I still swoon with every kiss.
After three months of dating, we took a trip to Belize to go scuba diving, which was fantastic. After 10 months, we moved in together, and a month later, he proposed to me on Christmas Eve as we sat beside our colorful, twinkling tree and warm, cozy fireplace.
We haven’t stopped traveling
Eleven months later, we got married, and the day after, we took a walk on the beach and agreed that after tasting adventure together in Belize, we wanted to take a much longer trip and officially become vagabonds.
Six months later, we quit our jobs, sold our cars, put everything else into storage, bought two backpacks, and flew to Bangkok.
We traveled with just a Lonely Planet guidebook as we made our way through Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Bali. Four glorious months of nothing but adventures. We learned early on how to overcome difficulties and cope with constant change together.
Eighteen years after our first big adventure trip, we lost our jobs due to an economic downturn, so we took off again for a six-month trip to Bali, Vietnam, Cambodia, and India. Then, after a year back home, we sold our house and embarked on a seven-month trip that included the Greek Islands, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Laos, and back to Thailand and India.
We are a really good team
Traveling to all these amazing places changed our lives forever and gave us an important perspective on how other cultures live. We also discovered that we are a really good team, each with a different set of skills that match up well, and that we can trust each other to get things done right. This experience also helped us develop a seemingly unbreakable and lasting bond.
Delightfully, on a day-to-day basis, we are extremely demonstrative. We hug and kiss often and thank each other constantly for such a loving relationship. We also have many absurd running comedy routines and dialogues that keep us laughing. People are often amazed by our obvious affection for each other and tell us how rare it is.
Like every other couple, we have had to deal with stressful and difficult situations. But we are able to handle them well because we always try to be kind to each other and put the relationship first. We both truly believe that love is the most precious and wonderful thing in the world.
To this day, every night when we get into bed and snuggle (his response to my ad did include, “likes to snuggle”), we happily melt into each other’s arms and feel so grateful that we were lucky enough to find each other.
