When I first met Anastasia, I thought I had it all. I was young, carefree and filthy rich. It took her all of three minutes and one smile to show me that I had nothing, absolutely nothing and that I knew nothing, absolutely nothing. When I dropped out of Harvard to start GEH, everyone thought I was crazy. They thought I was throwing my life away, that I was making the biggest mistake I could possibly make. My nearest and dearest even tried to stage an intervention. But when I proposed to Anastasia after mere months of knowing her, nobody thought I was crazy and nobody thought I was making the biggest mistake I could possibly make. Because everyone could see what I have the honor of seeing every single day…
Anastasia, in all her natural beauty.
Some say that sort of beauty is only skin deep.
But not with her.
Anastasia has shown me what it is to truly be alive. I spent years believing I was living the best life out there, that there could be no better. But I was merely existing, merely surviving. For the first time in my life, I understand the connection between my mother, the beautiful Dr Grey and my father, the devoted father, lawyer and friend. Theirs is an enduring love that I never truly comprehended until I met Anastasia and saw in her what my father must have seen in my mother all those years ago.
My soulmate.
That's a new concept for me too by the way, the idea of there being one perfect person out there for every soul on this Earth. In fact, it's a concept I would have sneered at just a year or so ago. But I know now as I look down on my new bride, that there is no other woman out there for me. Or man, in case any of you are still wondering. I know you are Grandmother. But you need wonder no more because Anastasia has done me the greatest honor of consenting to be my wife, and in doing so, has shown me a happiness that I thought could only be gleamed from balance sheets and takeovers.
Which brings me to our announcement.
As of today, of this very moment actually, I am no longer CEO of GEH. Anastasia is no longer a burgeoning Seattle based editor. There is more to life than padding the bottom line and for the first time, I want to live in the more. Our honeymoon isn't really our honeymoon. It's the start of our newest adventure together, our around-the-world backpacking trip to finalize in Uganda, where we hope to run an orphanage for children displaced by civil unrest and violence.
So this is our farewell for now.
And as I stare down the barrel of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I realize that my life has been a series of such opportunities from the moment Mrs Anastasia Grey stumbled into my office, unwittingly ready to turn my world upside down. I was once a man dedicated to order and regime, to predictability and dependability.
I am no longer that man.
Anastasia Rose Grey, I cannot wait to travel the world with you. I cannot wait to spend every minute of the rest of my life with you. It takes a special woman to save a man who didn't know he needed saving, and it takes an even more special woman to want to save a man who didn't know he needed saving. You're the happily ever after that I never thought I wanted or deserved and I owe you a debt of gratitude that can probably never be repaid.
But for now, let me just say this.
Mrs Anastasia Grey, because of you, I'm living fifty shades of technicolor.