I think I have thought much about searching for whimsy outside my own heart but have failed to realize that we all have our own personal whimsies to be thankful for. 

As my husband and myself were cooking dinner Saturday night, he stopped for a moment and said, "You know, I haven't thought about it for a while, but the two of us standing side by side in this kitchen is my favorite whimsy of all." And for those of you who do not know our story of whimsy, I agree that this, too among all the other remarkable moments of life remains my favorite personal whimsy as well. The way in which our lives came to intersect is all the proof one needs to believe in the "do part of faith" and the multiplying love that comes with it. 

And naturally it seems all good whimsies begin with music. This one is no exception. In 2008, I was a sophomore in the marching band and noticed a new member of the tenor saxophone section. With a twin who also played the tenor, even slight changes were made obvious to me,  as I was made an honorary member of their section. I came to know this new member who had taken the previous year off due to his dilligent studying, and we began to chat. I am saddened by the fact that I am no longer privy to AIM instant messenging. Unfortunately, all of those messages we had recorded through that instant messenging site were not saved in time. It would be neat to see the back and forth exchanges we had so many years ago. Luckily, somewhere in between AIM and talking in person, I managed to get a facebook account that same year. Thus, many of our old messages are saved on that social media platform. For that, we are lucky. 

One moment in particular continues to get us both. In 2007, Xiao was off making college decisions and in our conversation we happened to exchange a series of messages about our aspirations for the future. In the exact message the exchange went something like this: 

"What do you want to do when you grow up?"

"I think I'm going to be a doctor. I would like to go to Pitt. And you?"

"I definitely want to be a teacher. I think The University of Pittsburgh is my top choice."

How incredibly fortunate we are that the stars aligned and we were able to do exactly what we had wished for so many years ago. How blessed we are. 

Time went by and soon Xiao was off to college. There were no heartfelt goodbyes, but just a realization between the both of us that we had other things we had to do. Besides occasional commenting on photos here and there (from both sides) we did not contact eachother once in that five years. We were simply busy living our own lives. 

Until, one day, five years later, I was in my dorm room at The University of Pittsburgh, and I noticed a picture of my husband in a rather large celebratory picture with balloons. The caption read something like this: Congratulations to my PI who just won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. For those who know me, I am not the least bit of an impulsive person, but I felt like I had to send somehing. How interesting it is that a disconnected friend and his accomplishments can send such feelings of pride. I formulated a message. I read it over once and just once more, and I hit sent. I startled myself for being so impulsive. 

A few hours later, I distinctly remember going on a run with my brother and mentioning my recent moment of impulsivity. I must say I was slightly excited about the message I may receive back. However, I also prepared myself for no message at all. A few hours went by and then a day, and I received an inbox message responding to my original email. In it was the nickname he had given me 5 long years ago with a hope to come to Pittsburgh sometime soon. 

One encounter of doing led to countless hours of talking. How ironic that our instant messaging picked up right where we left off. The only difference this time was the social media platform. A few weeks went by, and he decided to drive from North Carolina in a snow storm to surprise his parents for the holidays as well as me. Another leap of faith on his part, and the rest is history. My husband continues to say to me, "I just cannot believe I married the Bri Amoscato from high school." For those of us who have experienced true whimsy, we know that the whimsy of it all never truly fades.

We have endured much over the course of our years together, but one thing remains the same. We still message eachother. But now, our messages can be found in a notebook that we use when there are many hours and sometimes days between when we will see eachother again. One day, we hope to have a full collection of thousands of letters we have sent one another over the years. This will be the ultimate reminder that whimsy does indeed multiply.