Thirty Things to do Before You're Thirty

“The coast-to-coaster. Yes, it takes time. It takes money. But here’s why it’s essential: You will meet one unforgettable girl and never see her again. You will almost land in jail. And best of all, you will collect more immortal memories than you will bugs on your windshield.”

This tenet was number four on a Men’ Health “Thirty Things to do Before You’re Thirty” list, and I clipped it out and put it in my wallet. When I show it to people, I jokingly tell them that it’s my credo. Well, somewhat jokingly. I’m a sentimental guy about certain things, and though almost going to jail isn’t on that list, unforgettable girls and immortal memories are.

My church’s youth group used to drive out to Colorado every spring break for a ski trip. Coming back from the first one, in 1996, we drove through Oklahoma. There, we stopped for dinner at a Boston Market on a lonely and dusty stretch of highway that, in its absolute stillness, practically screamed Middle America.

As the meatloaf sandwich was a given for me at Boston Market, I didn’t need the assistance of the menu. Looking instead everywhere else, my heart slowed at the sight of the cashier. A blue-eyed, little angel with flowing golden ringlets and a flawless smile rendered me a clumsy stoic.

Unlike all the girls on all the trips that I did talk to, and have since forgotten, I said nary a syllable to this little princess, yet she’s as fixated to my concept of road trips, and my notion of 1996, as love is to a heartbeat. She’s unforgettable, not for all the things that we did, but because of what her coy blush and my juvenile pout, amidst downward cast glances, seemed to attest to what could have been.

That’s why my second favorite name for a girl is Desiree.