Why weren't we cool when we were younger?

That is the question I asked Ricky tonight as we sat in Pix Patisserie SE and ate dessert in the very cool, super funky little bakery while Weezer played in the background.

Let me back up. Remember that Ricky and I started dating at 19. Our first date was in April 2000, when we were both freshmen in college. We were young, and poor, and - let's be honest - stupid. An exciting night out was going to Shari's, woohoo! Of course, as Ricky pointed out, the only place open after 9 in Newberg was Shari's, so we really didn't have many options.

Since then we've grown and changed and our priorities have changed as well. Now we're very interested in supporting local businesses, especially those that practice sustainability (aka are environmentally friendly). We go to cool places like Oak Bottom Public House and sing with the drunk faux Irishmen. We see bands no one has ever heard of in bars that you couldn't find on a map. We stay in funky hotels. We ride our bikes to the grocery store and use reuseable bags.

I remember when we were engaged and a lot of people looked at us like we were crazy. We were only 21 (heck, I wasn't even quite there yet!) when we got engaged, 22 when we got married (again, I didn't quite make it to 22; I was 21 and 49 weeks). So many people said, "but you'll be changing and growing. You won't be the same person you are now 10 years from now."

To those people I say, "you were right." I'm not the same person now that I was then. Neither is Ricky. And you know what? I'm glad. While not all the changes have been for the better, and while we've certainly gone through difficult times, we've managed to grow together, change together, so that each of our priorities - while different than they used to be - are still the same as the other's.

So tonight, as we sat in that very cool little bakery eating very yummy desserts in a very funky atmosphere, I wished, just for one minute, that we'd been this cool when we were younger. And then I realized - we've grown, we've changed, and it's the journey to this time that has made us this cool. Without the past 9 years, I don't know that either of us would be exactly where we are today. So we were young and dumb and totally uncool, but that's ok. We've made up for it in recent years, and hopefully will continue to over the next few decades.