When You Walked In

Taylor Swift's song "I Knew You Were Trouble" has been around for awhile. I've never really paid attention to the lyrics - still haven't. But a few days ago when I randomly heard it playing and she sang the line that must be the whole theme of her song... "I knew you were trouble when you walked in"... my brain did this humorous flashback thing.

I immediately remembered the day when Nate literally walked into my life for the very first time. It's a funny memory for me, because it was NOT love at first sight. In fact, at that moment, if Taylor Swift's song had been around, that one particular line would have popped into my mind and stuck.

It was the first day of our sophomore year of high school. (Mere babes, I know...but hey, we thought we were so grown up since we were no longer freshmen.) Each new school year began with a class orientation meeting...one of the rare times during the high school year when the entire class was all together in one room. That's when he walked in - the new kid.

June of 1982

Nate's first-impression problem was the fact that he came walking in with the two or three resident cowboys in our class. I won't get specific, but I didn't have a good history with cowboys at school. One teased me often, bashing my already fragile, young teenage self-esteem...and the other experiences went downhill from there. So when Nate came walking in with THEM, in his collared shirt with the pearlized snaps and Wrangler jeans, I merely thought, "Oh great - another cowboy," and didn't look twice.

Thankfully - you can't judge a book by it's cover. He lost the cowboy shirts after a few weeks, made some more friends, actually earned a few better scores than me in geometry (how dare he?!!) and made me laugh. A lot. And somehow he got a lot cuter over the next couple of years.

He's now my life long best friend, and most days, he's no "trouble" at all. What an incredible blessing.

All things considered, I'd say it's also a blessing that Taylor Swift songs weren't around in the early 80's.