A few weeks after our pre-school graduation ceremony, I realized that I will never hear from JR again, and since I never bothered to know what his real full name was, I had to forget my dream of the two of us getting married and settling in some huge mansion in Europe or the States (yes, I had always been that ambitious *cough*and materialistic*cough* even when young). Well, it was more of like, I forgot that dream and replaced it with “I will marry any other nice and uber handsome, brown-haired and brown-eyed mestizo and we’ll settle in some huge mansion in Europe or the States. We’ll have at least 10 maids, 5 Mercedes-Benz’s and our own Jet plane too.” Of course, that other nice and uber handsome mestizo has to have the same nature as my Grandpapa, at least 4 months older than I am, smarter or at least as smart as I was (I am not being egotistic here, EVERYBODY WHO PRACTICALLY KNEW ME at that time told me I was smart and very intelligent, ay?), will never grow a mustache, and would still look as fresh as he had just taken a bath even after playing basketball (or whatever) in a very humid summer afternoon. And yes, I was this specific at 5 years old.

I was lucky enough to have met those type of boys, and of course, I ended up having crushes on them— my biggest crush was a neighbor who did not only possess the characteristics I had mentioned above, but also speaks fluent English, was a child actor when he was like, 4 or 5 years old, AND, his Grandmama (who was a Spanish-speaking beauty) was very friendly with my Grandmama. They were so friendly,  that they used to tease us that they wouldn’t mind arranging a marriage between the two of us when we get older. I secretly loved the idea. He hated it.

When I was in 1st year of high school, I discovered the world of anime through Sailormoon. And that was the first time I started having crushes on anime-characters. I wasn’t alone, there were a lot of girls like me who fell for them 2-dimentional bishounens.  And when I met Lantis, of Magic Knights Rayearth, I just had to add, “looks very cold and uncaring but really sweet”, “serious”, “seldom smiles in front of other people but always smiles when he is with me” to the list of characteristics I was looking for. I knew then that living in a mansion in Europe or the States, the 20 maids, 5 luxury cars and the jet plain were barely possible, so I kept the “only-if-we-ended-up-really-filthy-rich” condition with it. I ”downgraded” the what I called “THE DREAM” down to 2 maids, a car, a dog, two-story house with a gate, garage and a lawn, both of us having jobs that would make each of us earn at least 30k a month, and at least 4 kids.

I am married now. My husband, when he was young, looked like a meztiso—very fair with light brown hair and brown eyes. His hair had grown much darker, and he’s sporting a mustache which, suprisingly I grew to like. He speaks not only fluent English (no Indian accent, thank God!), but also fluent Portuguese. His nature is like my Grandpapa’s and even if he says he’s a dud…I really do believe that he’s very smart. He’s a joker actually, but he always have this special smile for me, and he can be serious when needed—That will do . And no, he does not smell (let me tell you a secret…a lot of them don’t).

There is no mansion in Europe or the States—only a 2-bedroom flat here in Kuwait, and another 2 bedroom flat in Goa, which we share with his parents. We don’t have a dog, we have one Persian cat, and about 14 (or more!) street cats outside. The two-story house with a gate, garage and a lawn might become something like a 4-5 bedroom bungalow instead….but we’ll get it in the future…there is still time. The car, we’ll be getting most probably in December, but not here in Kuwait, it’s quite scary to drive here…and the two maids? Hmm…we don’t need them yet … probably later. Besides, we are earning much more than 30k each in both pesos and rupees, so we can afford to have them later on. We’re still working on the first of the four kids I wanted (he said we’ll start aiming for two for now…we’ll decide if we can raise the target later on ). So far, so good.

What about the luxury cars and the jet plain, you might ask. As I said, there is still time.