Persistence Pays

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TeddyDavis.org

This Wasn’t Always a Given: Teddy’s Toast to His Bride

Montpelier, Vermont  -  June 26, 2004

“One word about my bride. I can’t, I can’t pass on this cake without doing it.

This wasn’t always a given. This whole thing. I want you all to know that.

The lesson might be that persistence pays.

Because five years ago, in June of 1999, Emily decided to come and stay in Washington, DC for the summer with her friend, Megan Walker, who is a friend of mine from Georgetown, a friend of Emily’s from Vermont.

I went with Megan and picked her up at the train station. I asked her to go running. We went out to dinner. We talked on the phone. We did all these wonderful things.

And then, one night, Michael and Cesar were both in town. We went to a party. Emily and I watched a movie. We stayed up until 5 in the morning talking—the sun was coming out.

I took her to all of my favorite spots on the Georgetown campus and I thought: ‘For sure, there is something there; for sure, something’s working.’

Then she sat me down in what’s called Red Square at Georgetown and she said to me: ‘I just want to be friends.’

She said it in the most gentle, genuine, sweetest way imaginable.

I walked her home that night. And I said to her: ‘Whoever ends up with you will be really lucky.’

Now I know just how lucky. To my bride, my wife, to Emily

“I just want to be friends,”

Emily told Teddy

in the summer of 1999.