Essay 1: Our Special Day

 

On December 11, 2009 I moved in with my fiancé, Irvin Pedraza-Gomez.  I was eighteen and he was twenty-one at the time.  I moved from Anaheim to Oxnard.  This was on a Friday and that following Monday, I began behaving like a wife.  I cooked and cleaned every day.  Also, I worked on my online classes from Fullerton College,-this college is in Fullerton City- while he worked.           

Then, two weeks before my math final, I decided that I wanted to get married through the court.  I told my husband of that decision-or at least about my idea-and he agreed to it.  We decided to get married on the day of my final because we would get married in the afternoon and my final was scheduled for the evening.                                    

So, I called his sister and my mom so that they could find out where we could get married.  Then, I called the Civic Center Plaza in Fullerton City, and I got all the paperwork needed, ready for that day.  We left Oxnard the night before the ceremony.  I took all my necessary school materials and everything we needed for our special day.

On May 21, 2010, which was the next day, a few weeks after my husband’s birthday and mine, we were very busy.  As soon as, the court was opened, we went to get our marriage license.  I remember that as the minutes progressed I began to get more nervous.  When we arrived at the civil court, we had to fill out all the necessary documents.  I could tell he was nervous.                                                                                                                                                                     I kept telling him, “Sign here.”  He would say, “Where?”  I would repeat “Here!”  Then he asked, “Now what?”  I explained, “Now we wait!”                                                                                            

 Then the person who was checking all our paper work asked us if we wanted to get married right away.  We wanted to have the latest ceremony possible, which was at four in the afternoon.  

At that moment, what popped into my mind was the fact that I going to change my name.  I went from Brenda Maria Jimenez to Brenda Maria Jimenez-Pedraza. Even though, I just added my husband’s last name, it was still a big deal.  I had never really thought about changing my last name, or in this case, adding a last name.  However, I was still sure that though I was taking his last name as my own, I still wanted to keep my paternal name.

           

Then, we went to run some errands.  Before long, it was time to get ready for our ceremony.  We got dressed and hurried on back to the court.  He wore a black dress pants, black dress shoes, and a striped dress shirt that matched my dress.  I wore a pearl colored dress with gold heels. When we arrived, we were getting the final details ready, like who our witnesses were and waiting to do the four o’clock ceremony of that day.       

           

As soon as, our witnesses, Ana Toro and Jarem Toro arrived, we were ready to be married.  They signed the papers and we were led into the ceremony room.  I remember that there was a quote on the wall that said something like, “May you always be happy and in love.”  There were curtains, flowers, a podium, and a bench in the room.              We all went in and took pictures.  My husband and I took pictures of us, and then some with our mothers, our siblings, and as a big happy family.  I remember that my sister-in-law also videotaped the entire ceremony.                                                               

While the judge was speaking, I kept thinking of how much I loved this man next to me.  Then, the “I do’s,” came in.  As soon as I had to say the very first “I do,” I began crying.  At that moment, I knew that I would never love anyone, but him.  This, I knew before I decided to marry him, but I did not know how much it meant to me to get married with the love of my life.                                                 

I knew that everyone was staring at us, but especially at me because no one in my family had ever seen me cry--because I am the type of person who would try to hide all of those types of feelings behind a sweet smile.  Yet, I tried to keep it together.  Then, the “I do,” promise began.  I said, “I do,” to everything that the judge asked me.  Afterward, my husband said his share of, “I do‘s!”                                                          

I still could not believe that I took that big step, especially as a nineteen year old.  When I was younger, I would always say that I never planned to get married.  I always thought about dating, and adopting when I became an adult, but not about getting married.  I could never see myself as a married person, but that day, I knew that, that is what I wanted to be happy.  In other words, I am so happy that a wonderful man was capable of changing my way of thinking.

After the ceremony we went out to eat at a Chinese food buffet.  We all sat around a circular table and ate as a family.  We talked about our future plans and of how our lives had changed since moving in together.  Everybody seemed very happy to see us so happy together.  It all seemed like a dream come true.                                                    

Afterward, my husband took me to Fullerton College to take my Math Final a few hours later.  After that, we kept the celebration going at my sister-in-law’s house.  We talked about starting a family, and going out.  We stayed up the entire night.  In fact, we did not go to sleep until Sunday when we drove back to Oxnard that night.