Story by Taylor Hodges, Sports Editor
Photo courtesy of The Imaginative Conservative 

To my future wife, I’m not sure if we’ve met yet. Maybe we’ve had a conversation together or maybe you’re the stranger I’ve seen on the sidewalk a couple times. Maybe I went to high school with you or have seen you downtown Holland. Maybe I’ve seen you at a Griffins game or have taken a class with you here at Aquinas. Shoot, maybe we won’t even meet for another five or eight years and we’ll look back on this moment and wonder what lead us to each other. Why didn’t we talk in that biology or marketing class? And more importantly, what happened that finally brought us together?

To my future wife, you should know that I love planning things out to a T. I want to make sure everything is figured out so I can minimize all the surprises. I plan on still doing that when we finally meet, so hopefully you can bare with me. I also like to have a clean space, so just know I’ll probably organize things a thousand times. It’s not that you did anything wrong, it’s just how I am.

To my future wife, I’m the type of guy who’s still trying to figure things out for himself. Still trying to figure out who I am, what my passions are, and what I want out of life. Hopefully, I have some of those down before we meet, if not, let’s find out together.

To my future wife, something you should know about me is that when we do meet, I plan on giving you the World. Don’t mistake my serious attitude for not having fun. I’m just really focused on making something of myself. Hopefully I’ve already made something of myself before I meet you.

To my future wife, I’m the type of guy who likes to be depended upon, and while I certainly want you to be independent, please let me take care of you sometimes. It’s something I find a lot of satisfaction in. I hope you can deal with me writing you little poems or bringing you flowers on my way home, because that’s probably going to happen often.

To my future wife, you should know that I really love hockey and plan on being a general manager someday. This may cause us to move around a lot and it will probably be difficult for you, but it’s the only thing I’ve ever been one-hundred-percent certain about in my life. It’s what I have to do. I feel it deep down in my soul. I hope you can understand.

To my future wife, I’m probably going to be a lot to handle sometimes. I mean, I’m working on growing as a person, but there’s still some flaws I’ll have when we finally meet, like wanting to always talk to you or make sure that you’re okay. In fact, I’ll probably ask you if you’re okay over a million times during our marriage because you’re that important to me. I find happiness in yours.

To my future wife, every time you smile or laugh, it’s going to send shivers down my spine, especially when I’m the root cause. I might be having a bad day, but as long as I hear your laugh or see your smile, I’ll be okay.

To my future wife, I hope before we meet that you do all the things you want to do. Go after the things you want and make those into great memories that you can share with me one day. I’m 21 now, but I’ve got some great stories to tell you, and hopefully I can gather some more before we meet. Fingers crossed.

To my future wife, I’m going to take YOU seriously. I want to inspire growth in you and make you believe that you can do anything you set your mind to.

To my future wife, I want you to know that I’m going to take this seriously. I don’t want us to end up getting a divorce. I want us to be the ones that make it and inspire others. If there’s ever a problem I want us to be able to openly communicate about it without worrying what the other person might think. I’m in this for the long-run and willing to work on it if you are.

To my future wife, I plan on having at least two kids, Lily and Troy. I’ve always loved the name Lily, so please let me have that. I want to be able to give Lily and Troy the World. I want them to understand the value of hard-work, loyalty, and honesty, because I feel those are things that are becoming obsolete in our society. I want them to be happy and try whatever their heart desires. I don’t want to pressure them into anything. I want us to have family vacations, eat dinner together, talk about how our day went, make cookies for Santa and open presents together.

To my future wife, whether I’ve already met you or God has me on a path to meet you, I can’t wait until that day comes. I can’t wait to share all my stories with you, my fears, dreams, the places I’ve been, and the places I want to go. I can’t wait to make breakfast with you and kiss you before you go off to work. I can’t wait to have a family with you and give you and our kids everything. But most importantly, I can’t wait for you to see this article so you can know that I was thinking about you even long before we met.

About the writer…

Taylor Hodges is a senior majoring in Sport Management/ Business Administration. He is the sports editor for The Saint and interns with the public relations department for the Grand Rapids Griffins. He hopes to one day break into the hockey business as a General Manager, but until then, encourages you to follow him on Twitter and download his mixtape.