a friendly little wager

When Mike and I first got married, I was still in college and Mike was working on his masters. We spent a lot of nights studying together after dinner on each side of our small little table we had in our Nashville apartment. We have been and always will be VERY competitive with one another regarding just about anything...whether it be a game of scrabble or who has the best sense of direction. (Not really a competition on that one! YEAH...it's me)

Well school proved to be no different for our drive for competition with one another. We always had a bet going to see who would make a better grade on a paper or what not. One evening in particular, we were both studying quite tediously for 2 separate upcoming tests in our separate classes. We were both pretty stressed because on top of everything, my parents were coming down for a visit the next weekend. The house was a disaster and all we could focus on were our tests. We decided to WAGER the tedious job of cleaning the whole house. Whoever made the lower score on their test the following day would have the responsiblity of cleaning the entire house all by their self...no help from the other person. (I was so...GAME ON!!!)

We rushed home the following Friday to report our scores. I had made a 96% and felt fairly confident about my victory. He walked in and asked me what my grade was. When I shared with him my excellent score he lowered his head with a smile and said, "YOU WIN." I'd like to say I handled my victory with complete humbleness and helped him clean the house but nope...poor Mike cleaned the whole house all by himself! (quite willingly I might add)

The following weekend my parents came and we had a wonderful visit with them. As we were saying goodbye, I was doing my typical "first year of marriage, please don't leave me with this man, I need you" CRY when my mom whispered in my ear that I really needed to start loving my husband more. She encouraged me to pull myself together and cling to HIM. She reminded me of what an amazing guy he was and then she whispered in my ear that he had scored a 100% on his test. SERIOUSLY??!?

I'm reminding myself of this story quite often down here in language school as we are back in the classroom setting once again with each other. I'm trying REALLY hard not to feel competitive as he learns to speak this difficult language faster than I do. After all, I can READ it faster than he can! ;)