Valentine's Day 2021 - First Impression

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, we at Green & Green are feeling romantic, or maybe it’s just me. Even though I’ve been married for over 20 years, I get nostalgic thinking about the first time I met Steve...

It was the summer of 1996. Truth be told, the first thing I noticed about him were his legs. He was wearing shorts that day, which really showcased his duel forces power-stems to their full degree. I recall coming home that evening and telling my sister, "Today I met a guy who has the most beautiful legs!”. Steve is is 6’ 5” and is an athlete. Over time I found out that he bikes, hikes, skis, plays basketball, and swims, athletic pursuits which made me like him more and deepened my affections. However, I still think about that initial meeting and how those legs made an impression. To this day, I still think he has the most beautiful legs.

My mother had a very different experience. She married a man of her father’s choice and only met my dad at the wedding! However antithetical to modern romantic notions that may seem, she and my dad were a very happy couple and their love grew everyday. I asked her one day what was the one thing that attracted her to my dad when she met him on their wedding day. She said it was his kindness, care and love, which was immediately apparent to her.

Sometimes that initial encounter doesn’t go as smoothly. My friend Sarah shared this disastrous first date story with me. She went on a date with a boy she had been chatting with online, and he challenged her to a Scrabble match. The guy brought a Scrabble board lent by his friend’s mother on a two hour train journey to meet her. When he sat down, It became apparent after five seconds that it wasn’t going to work, and it just got worse. During the game, he told her that his friends had given him advice to play suggestive words to subliminally seduce Sarah. He was telling her this as he started playing the word “desire”. Except, he spelled desire wrong. D-E-R-I-S-E. Derise. She almost de-rose off her seat and left, but thought she might as well kick his ass at Scrabble first. The score was 240 – 80.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. I hope this Valentine’s Day you can look back at your first encounters with love and fondness, or at the very least, with laughter. Share your first impression stories with us! We would love to hear them.