When I was collecting the paperwork for Silas to complete kindergarten at home, I acquired high school transcripts for me and Jason. When I realized my transcripts included my class rank, I immediately snatched up Jason’s. What was his rank? More specifically, where was his rank compared to mine? Would I be able to lord it over him, noting, henceforward, in any decision, that he was technically outranked? Or would I need to keep the discovery a dark, permanent secret, entombed inside of me and the halls of our old high school. If need be, could I get a hold of the original transcripts and burn them both?!?

When I found Jason’s rank, I laughed out loud. We started “going out,” which didn’t entail actually going anywhere since neither of us had a driver’s license, in the ninth grade. As I remember it, we weren’t in many of the same classes in school, and I feel like we diverged as far as what academic tracks we were on in a few ways. Nevertheless, in a class of 126, I think it was, we were exactly one person apart in class rank.

While amusing, it made sense. When we started dating, we got along really well. Really well. And we kept getting along all through school… all through college… and now, almost 21 years later, we mark 14 years of marriage today. We still get along really well. He’s nice to me, and I’m nice to him, and the rest has kind of fallen into place so far.

That we’re numerically ranked in school is so strange. What if we had number ratings in life? Life rank? I guess social media kind of does that for some nowadays. Well, if such a life transcript existed, and I looked up Jason, I’ll proudly admit, he’d probably still outrank me.

~ Stella

This day ranked pretty high on the happiness scale.