There's an old saying that says, "If you love someone set them free, if they come back it was meant to be." I use to think that was just a corny saying up until about a month ago. That's' when the one man I truly loved, Tyson Minor came back into my life.
Tyson and I always had a great relationship from the first day we met in the 1st grade. When the other boys didn't want to play with girls, Tyson would convince them to let me play with them. I became like their little tom boy play pal. As we got older and the hormones started to kick in we knew we had something special.
Tyson and I didn't officially date until we were freshmen in high school. We became the couple everyone one at the school envied. He was the likable handsome young man whom everyone was expecting big things from. I was the cute little daddy's girl who could be just as tough as she was pretty. Both of us were voted "Most likely to Succeed" by our freshman class.
During out junior year things got very serious for the two of us. There were endless conversation about marriage and kids. I jut knew he was the one; I ached when I was around him because I knew he would have to go home. I ached when I wasn't around him because I was alone. He became everything to me, my world evolved around him and it was the same way for him.
It was doing the summer after our junior year that we decided to go beyond 1st, 2nd and 3rd base. We decide we would give each other our virginity. It turned out to be a wonderful and beautiful experience, even thought both of us were like to people lost in the wilderness. Even thought it was beautiful we both felt awkward, so we decide not to have sex again until we were married.
Our senior year was filled with stolen moments of teenage emotional bliss. He became one of the best athletes in the history of the school and I was there cheering him all the way. I became the captain of the cheerleaders that year. It was magical, almost like it was written in a fairy tale. Sometimes when he played basketball I would get lost in watching him and forget my routine, he just so mesmerizing on the floor.
When he would go to the free throw line to shoot his foul shots, he would blow me a kiss and give me a wink. I loved it especially since he would sometime go to the free throw line 4or 5 times a game. I would show my appreciation by extending my hand up in the air and catching the kiss and sliding it over my heart.
I know it sounds a little corny, but at the time I was in paradise and in love, and those kisses rocked my world. During the spring of our senior year his dream came true. We were both excited when he got a scholarship to play football at a Big Ten college. That summer I got accepted at the same college. It was going to be a wonderful 4 years.
That's all we talked about that summer. Our entire lives were planned out down to the names of our kids. Our plans were for both of us to graduate college, get married after graduation, and then start med school. I wanted to go into pediatrics and he wanted to be an OBGYN.
All that changed two weeks before we were set to go to college. I was driving with Tyson as a passenger one rainy night after we had taken in a movie, I swerved to keep from hitting a dog and over corrected and lost control of the car. Tyson wasn't hurt; he had a few cuts, but nothing serious.
But I wasn't as lucky, I was in bad shape I suffered two broken legs and crack ribs, and to make things worst I was partially paralyzed from the waist down. I felt worthless during that time, watching my dreams and our dreams fade away sent me in to a deep depression. Tyson did his best to hold on, but I didn't think if was fair to him to hold on to me.
He went off to college and I broke up with him. He would plea with my parents to let him talk to me, but I made it clear to them that I didn't want him in my life. As I look back on that time, I think a huge part of me was jealous of the fact that he was doing what he wanted to do in life, all his dreams were coming true, as mine slowly disappeared.
Tyson went on to a stellar two sports college career. He ended up getting drafted by the NFL and the NBA he decided to go where the most money was. He decided to go to the NBA. For four years while he was in college I went through grueling rehabilitation and physical therapy session with a woman who had to be the reincarnation of Attila the Hun.
She worked me like she was mad at the world and I was the world. There were many days I wanted to throw in the towel, but she wouldn't let me. With Attila on my back 24/7 I was able to progress well enough to gain full movement in my arms and legs. It was a miracle indeed.
During Tyson's second year in the NBA I was sitting at the kitchen table when I heard him on television doing an interview. At first I thought I was hearing things, but as I got closer to the television in the living room I realize I wasn't hearing things. He was talking about me.
