The Happiest Day Of My Life

Twenty years ago today was the happiest day of my life.

It was raining hard that day - just like today. I was supposed to be going out with Karen, who I was madly in love with. It was going to be our first official date. But it was pouring rain. As I left her after my 6th period class, I said, "Well, I guess we can't go out today." And she replied, "Why not?" "It's raining." "Well, can't we go someplace else?" My heart bounced and I told her that I would find a place.

I cut 7th period geometry and ran home through the rain. I'd forgotten my bus pass and figured that I might actually need it. Its only about 20 blocks downhill to my house - and 20 blocks back up hill to school. I made it with 2 minutes to spare and met Karen outside her class.

The rain had let up for the moment, so we walked down to the streetcar stop and took the streetcar downtown. At Castro Street we got off the train and climbed up the long hill out of Castro and through a small park to the Josephine Randall Children's Museum - it was free and it was indoors. We wandered through the exhibits - different animals and small science exhibits like a richter scale. But we both quickly became bored and decided to go for a walk through the hilltop park.

Though it started to rain, I didn't care as we walked together under her umbrella up to a small terrace with an amazing view of San Francisco. I sat on the red brick outdoor Bar-B-Que grills and she sat on my lap and we just talked and looked at the city. I had this overwhelming urge to kiss her, but she was facing the wrong direction.

Finally, my worst nightmares came true when she said that she had to go home, and I hadn't had a chance to kiss her. I walked over to the rail on the side of a sheer cliff and looked out at the city one last time. She came there and joined me, telling me I was getting wet without the umbrella. I wanted to tell her that it didn't matter, but I never got a chance. Instead, she leaned in and we kissed. It was the most magical moment of my whole entire life.

Afterwards, I walked her home and said goodbye across the street from her house. She asked me if I needed the umbrella and I told her I was fine. I walked home through the rain and arrived 13 long blocks later completely soaked to the bone. In those 13 blocks, I created the characters and story for what would become my greatest high school epic - a story that I wrote for nearly four years... but that's another story.

The afterglow of that day, now 20 years ago, is still so strong in my life that I can't seem to let it go. It was a picture perfect moment - the kind Hollywood could never recreate, the kind you seek out your whole entire life. I said yesterday that I'd never had my moment in the sun, but that wasn't entirely true - that moment under the umbrella in the rain where I kissed Karen for the first time, was my moment in the sun.

Unfortunately, six years later we broke up, and so my story has a bittersweet feel to it - the promising first act that just sort of peters out into a melancholy ending. I've hoped for a moment to replace that one, but I strongly suspect that I'll never have a moment like that again. It seems as if we only get one of those moments in our life and my moment was 20 years ago. I'll always remember that moment as the bright spot, and I'll always feel a sadness every year it grows a little bit dimmer.

Tomorrow, I swear, I'll talk about the TACCIE Awards.