BUSINESS INSIDER
When I posted on social media that I was going through a divorce, Dan, my college sweetheart, messaged me asking if we could talk on the phone. I was very surprised to hear from him.
On the phone, Dan apologized for breaking up with me through a text message back in 2002 during my junior year of college. I told him that text message was forever ago, but his apology made me wonder what life would have looked like if we stayed together in college: Would we have lasted after graduation and gotten married? Would we have kids, pets, and a home together?
After hearing Dan’s voice, something changed in me. I could suddenly see his red Cavalier. I was skipping my college class, packing an overnight bag, and dashing to Penn Station for the LIRR train to be with him in his dorm.
I suddenly got a second chance at love with Dan.
In college, we fell for each other but ended up going in different directions
We share the same hometown outside Syracuse, New York, but he was a year older, so we hung out with different crowds. We officially met in the summer when I was turning 19 and working as a waitress, and he was the dish boy. Coincidentally, I was going to college in New York City, and he was studying aviation on Long Island, so our campuses were a quick train ride apart.
I had been his first kiss and even took his virginity. Back then, I was eccentric and artsy, talking a mile a minute. I wanted to be a model in magazines, and I made my own clothing using a glue gun. Dan was shy and more serious; he wasn’t interested in going to a Roman-themed college party like I was. He was focused on his dream of becoming an airline pilot and studying his flight books.
Breaking up hit me hard, and I never forgot him.
After we broke up, I saw Dan one more time. We had a steamy night together a couple of years later. It felt right at the time; I wanted to spend more time with him, but we agreed the timing was off. I wanted to pursue my writing career in New York City, and Dan was moving to Maine to work as an air traffic controller.
I would meet someone else six months later. A few years later, I got married, became a mom of two amazing kids, and moved from New York to Houston.
I was 38 and finalizing a terrible divorce when I spoke to Dan again.
I never expected to reunite with him and fall in love again years later
On the phone, I learned Dan, 39, had become an airline pilot and was going through a divorce, too. He lived in Chicago. We ended up talking for hours. His voice sounded the same, and I wanted to see him.
A couple of weeks later, I drove to the airport. My heart was racing, and the years between college and now seemed to diminish.
When Dan walked out of the airport wearing his pilot uniform, his hug melted me. I was suddenly years younger — when life seemed endless and butterflies ran through me. Time had found us again. We finally wanted the same things: mutual trust, respect, an emotional connection, desire, and a relationship where we could just be ourselves.
Being together, having coffee in bed, cooking side by side, going on hikes, introducing him to my kids, and making plans for the future was somehow like making up for lost time and getting to experience what we had missed out on years before.
We had a long-distance relationship until he proposed
We had a long-distance relationship for a year and flew back and forth from Chicago to Houston to see each other. Every time I was on the plane or dropping him off at the airport again, I would think about how it should have been him and I sharing our lives all along. He felt the same.
One of my favorite memories of us is when we flew together. He was flying the plane from Dallas to New Orleans. He made an announcement from the cockpit, telling all the passengers that he loved me.
By then, he was switching airport bases for his work and moving to Texas so we could live together.
Right before Christmas, there was a little blue box with a sparkly diamond ring inside. Now, whenever I wiggle my finger, I feel youthful and excited for the years ahead.
Of course, I will always wish to have those years back that Dan and I spent apart, but I know there is plenty of time left for us to create the life we want together. When I walk toward him in a flowy dress and veil, we can relive what we began together years ago.
