Hello Charmain’s blog readers. I hope you enjoyed Charms’ story as much as I did (though if you’re anything like me, you were in agony waiting for the next post!). I was Skyping with Charms the other day, and thought that it’d be pretty cool if I penned my version of events for you guys – many of whom I have never met, but would certainly like to get to know. I think it was inevitable: we both love reading and writing so much (I’d say it’s one of the foundations upon which our relationship was built), so it’s natural for us to want to put our story into words. But what started as merely a blog post has turned into a labour of love for her. So here goes, hope you guys enjoy it.

Chester
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“What took you so long?”

Well, it took 6 and a half years of close friendship, plus 8 years of ‘acquaintance-ship’ before that to get here, so yea, I took a long time. But let’s back track, way back...


1998

                “Oh, captain and family are back, welcome home,” said my pastor one Sunday in church. I peered around curiously to see four unfamiliar faces, smiling, a little sheepish - glad to be acknowledged perhaps. No, there wasn’t a bolt of lightning, cherubs didn’t descend and serenade (I blame movies for all that); my first glimpse of the girl who would turn out to be the girl of my dreams was rather perfunctory.
                During school holidays a year later, our church youth group arranged an outing to Port Dickson. The affable family – as I thought of them – were to come along. I saw her again, a year older now, but still a girl, 5 years my junior. However, I did think to myself, “Gee, I bet she’s gonna be a real looker when she grows up.”


2001

                Perhaps – no, surely – it was fate that her father had such a huge bearing on how my life would turn out, encouraging me to pursue a career at sea. And so off to Singapore I went to study.  3 years later, I graduated and was home. And lo, the girl was still there, but she was no longer a girl – she was a young woman now. I took notice. This time, it wasn’t so perfunctory.

                She intrigued me, this quiet, thoughtful, graceful girl; she seemed much more mature than her years suggested. I didn’t know much about her, though I wanted to. But I never had the guts to approach her. Forest Gump would have done a better job at striking up a conversation (he had chocolates). My sailing life had begun. Being out at sea for months on end, I loved – as I always have – corresponding; I would eagerly reply anyone kind enough to write to me. Then, out of the blue, one evening as my ship sailed out of New York, a familiar name suddenly popped into my inbox: the intriguing girl had e-mailed me. I was glad. Nay, I was secretly ecstatic.  

                So far, I was 2 for 2 on my assessment of my new e-mail buddy: she had indeed blossomed into a beautiful young woman, and she certainly was intriguing. But intriguing slowly gave way to beguiling, as her e-mails revealed that she was more than just a pretty face. This girl was intelligent, intellectual, she had great penmanship, she read a lot (smart is sexy!), she loved God, she had great taste in music, she was endearing. The spell was being cast.

                The years rolled on. We continued our polite (sometimes overly-polite), politically correct correspondence, as if our parents were peering over our shoulders as we wrote. But she had her daring moments too: “I’ve always wondered, don’t you like anyone?” she brazenly asked me once on MSN Messenger. “Wow, this girl’s pretty spunky,” I thought to myself at the time.


2008

                “If I ever get married, I see in her character the kind of woman I would want to be with.” I remember distinctly, clearly, those words I spoke as I confided in a close friend about her one day. Our friendship had grown and matured; I was starting to consider the possibilities. I was 25, still having never been in a relationship. “Marry”? Was I getting ahead of myself? Hardly. I always told myself that if I ever pursued a girl, it would be because I saw myself marrying her someday. I had a front row seat to the failing of my parents’ marriage, and I promised myself that I would never let that happen to me. Fast forward to the present for a moment: I should clarify, reader, that I am not proposing to my girlfriend on her blog! I’m just stating my convictions and beliefs when it comes to relationships. Back to the story: so it was obvious that this girl was really starting to make an impression on me. Quite strange then, that after voicing that impression to my friend, the next few years – from my vantage point at least - would see us shift into a peculiarly-balanced status quo in our friendship. Perhaps God was preparing me.