We’re
Engaged!!
How We Met: His Side
If there were a quote to describe “how we met,” it is this one….
“Ego says, “Once everything falls into place, I’ll feel peace.” Spirit says, “Find your peace, and then everything will fall into place.” Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am a living example of this quote!”
Early on in our relationship, and much like my time since graduating college, everything had fallen into place, and I was well on my way to world domination. Said better…
–(Anyone at any given time) “What are you doing today Corey?”
– (C’…aka “The Brain”) “The same thing I do every day – try to take over the world!”
Yes, I know you are now wondering what I did every day to try to take over the world?
My job at LEAD Public Schools, I had it all… Apple computer, districtwide access to our student management system, key to any and all doors at LEAD Public Schools, comfortable chair in “The NeST,” logins to any and everything! Similarly, my reputation was such that I could not let anything get in the way. Personal often was sacrificed for professional. Everything had fallen into place.
My personal life, I had it all...my community involvement was at an all-time high. I was on three standing boards. Aladdin’s Hookah Bar was at least a 2x a week adventure. Lived in a studio apartment in East Cashville, and ALL ALONE on Hody Drive. I could come and go as I pleased…and that was okay with me. I preferred that actually at the time as this afforded me time to, as you saw above, “take over the world” without interruption.
Socially, I did NOT have it all, but had what I wanted…my movies, my books, my music, soccer….again, “everything had fallen into place”…and I was at peace.
Yep yep. With everything right where I wanted it, I was at peace. Went out when I wanted, worked when I wanted, chilled when I wanted; everything was right where I wanted it. Or was it?
Now enters a new character stage right:
So…some know her by her government, Ms. LaKeshia Richardson. Others call her “Kee,” “shee-sha” (by DeMiyah my niece), “Danni.” I am sure the list goes on, but the point of the story is what I have come to consider her and what I did not know I had in her now years ago, “My Peace.” I know, I know, most of you have heard me call her “The Girl,” but let me explain. Yes, her story is right, we met awkwardly as she was visiting LEAD interviewing. And yes, she got my attention. We may have gone to Rosepepper for our first date and enjoyed some of, okay, a lot of, those AWEsome margaritas. She may have entered my thoughts often, and made me wonder, “hmmm, what if?”
Since meeting at LEAD, I have grown quite a bit. It is not by happenstance that work was always waiting, there were always more boards to join, always another email to send, always some other task you could complete to become more marketable than the next employee; all of which makes for a difficult foundation. My quest for world domination had lost its allure. As I mentioned earlier…Ego says, “Once everything falls into place, I’ll feel peace.” Spirit says, “Find your peace, and then everything will fall into place.”
In the four years that we have shared, I have come to realize the following:
- Only having a futon in your place is enough to win over “The One.”
- There are people (she being one of them) that exist who have not seen classics like “The Godfather” and “Poetic Justice.”
- There are other things to order from a Thai restaurant other than Pad See Ew, spice level 4, no onions.
- It is important to actually wear sweater caps.
- Some people think it’s weird that I call it “hamburger meat” or “cold dranks.”
- That men are not the only ones that have bootleg DVDs like the ones we would get from the barber shop.
- There is a point to owning and using the wooden spoons that come with pots and pans (something else I have come to appreciate and understand the need for).
- A life trying to be perfect in your work, perfect in your service, perfect in your humanity is not the life “The Big Guy” wants for us. Instead, my life became much more meaningful, and much more substantive once I realized what or who actually brings real peace. From that peaceful place, there’s clarity, security, love, and depth that ripples through your work, your service, and your humanity.
- That my life before was a whirlwind of involvement, work, thinking, processing, adjusting, planning, preparing, wondering, backup planning, backup planning to my backup plan; all of which I thought me being able to sustain and control gave me peace. (Organized chaos)
- That I have now found peace, and having attained that in her, I can be cool, calm, and collected knowing that as long as we have one another, everything else will fall into place.
Bring Your
Dancing Shoes!!