Just a few days ago, I attended the wedding of a former mentor and Student Council sponsor as the only person in my grade who was formally invited. I had no idea how to react or behave, as it was the first wedding I've been to since I was 6 or 7.

Perhaps I should elaborate on what my first wedding was like. I was only 6 or 7-years-old (maybe 8) and I don't remember dressing fancy at all. The wedding was at my father's bosses' father's house, or should I say mansion, and everything was extravagant. I remember snorkeling.

In the pool.

I also didn't even attend the wedding ceremony; I was too busy playing Cars (from Disney? You don't remember? Alright.) They had a big house. I got lost. It was a blast.

Fast forward to present time. The wedding of my friend and teacher, Jennifer Nguyen, was very different from the first wedding I attended. I was wearing a suit in the 100 degree Texas heat and sweating like you wouldn't believe after just a measly two minutes outside. The location was a local church, and I was extraordinarily surprised by how long the wedding was.

There was live music by wonderful performers whose names I did not know, followed by a procession of people the majority of which I did not know, followed by speeches from a pastor whose name I did not know. Amidst all the unknowns in the equation, there were about three constants—the groom Joseph Manuel, the bride Jennifer Nguyen, and the person standing next to me who also seemingly had no idea how to behave, Alex.

The pastor behaved not as expected, cracking jokes and displaying more levity than I thought a pastor could. There was a verse that the couple chose about being "fertile and multiply[ing]" on which the pastor remarked not much differently from what us dirty minded people are thinking right now as well. I was both taken aback and gleefully surprised at his feistiness and attitude that he had somehow managed to retain at his old age.

There were periods where the pastor asked us to sit or kneel, and I kneeled for a session. As someone who doesn't go to a church where we had to kneel, and beckoned by our friends who encouraged us to kneel, I knelt. I'm a football player, and I live in a world where squatting 225 pounds isn't considered to be too difficult, but kneeling for about 5 minutes (felt like 10 years) was a leg workout that I won't forget. Heck, I'm sitting here right now with sore thighs writing to you.

All in all, I had a great time. I caught up with some friends from high school, and I got to witness my first real (?) wedding as well as a joyous bond between two people. Through the sweating and dying of thirst, I thoroughly enjoyed my second ever wedding.