What is it about the story of someone that has messed up in life, turns their life around, and then makes sure they keep doing good for others because of the good that was done for them that makes you want to be better yourself?
::our love story::
We recently went to a local performance of Les Miserables that blew us away. Normally, local theater isn’t my favorite because I always compare it to broadway or a cast that I have seen before that has done much better. When it comes to Les Miserables though, I get really snobby because it has so much meaning to me personally.
Lets go back to when I first saw the show. It was a high school performance in Visalia, California. I had just moved there and was about to attend the local college. I saw the video recording that a friend owned of the show and watched it. I fell in love instantly with the story because I love the idea of redemption and being forgiven for what we’ve done wrong in our past.
As I attended classes I started to meet some of the cast members and felt an instant connection because I had seen their amazing performance. I was confused by the story because of all the crazy French names. I guess I get confused easily.
Not long after that I went to San Diego to see the touring broadway cast. As we sat there, my friend from the high school cast would explain who everyone was using the actual names of the friends that I had made from the high school cast. It was from then on that I began to love the show and the real meaning behind it all because I finally understood the characters.
Jump ahead to almost two years ago. I went to see another little local community theater that was put on by junior high/high school aged kids. It was this moment that I had first met my now wife. We sat there and laughed, and joked about how it wasn’t the show that we both loved, but we enjoyed being together.
The connection between us while seeing the show was just like Cozette and Marius from Les Miserables, I knew instantly that there was something amazing with Emily, just like they did. Our story quickly became a similar story to theirs in that we fell in love super quick and married. It was our love story.
Since then we have seen it together multiple times: Southern Utah University’s production, the movie, and Hale Center Theater (most recent). When we saw the University production we were dating knowing it was going somewhere fast. The movie, we were pregnant and my wife absolutely loved the new song that Hugh Jackman sang in the carriage. And recently the amazing local performance just came at the right time and was a fun date.
Les Miserables has become our show. We have grown to love it’s message and memory even more as our family continues to grow.