Capture the Moment!

Some experiences you’ll always remember and the place where they occurred will be marked permanently in your mind. You’ll always remember where you were when your first child was born, or where you had your first date with your partner. Any spot can become a landmark in your life.

One of my landmarks is a little tiki bar on the beach of Cozumel, Mexico. My then-girlfriend and I were bouncing from bar to bar on the beach. These were nothing like the beach bars we were accustomed to in Florida. They were bamboo huts constructed in the sand just feet away from the ocean, running solely on generators.

We had made our way across several bars dotting the beach before we reached the thatched-roof hut that would become our landmark. It was named the Libertad en el Paraiso, or Freedom in Paradise. It donned not only the standard beach signage and red, green, and yellow Rasta colors, but also it was covered from floor to ceiling in Sharpie writing.

People commemorated their special moments by writing them on the walls in permanent ink. From “Brad was here” to “RIP Dad” and “Wish you were here”, this tiki bar was home to decades of memories and was a lifelong landmark for hundreds of people. I was waiting for the perfect place to create our own special moment, and after seeing what a special place this was to so many others, I took it as a sign to make it our own landmark.

After spending a few serene moments looking out at the ocean from the bar’s second floor, I proposed. She said yes, and we memorialized the occasion as many others had: by taking a Sharpie to the bar’s wall. Now, whenever I think back to our proposal, I think back to that little tiki bar and our message on the wall. Even now, as the wedding planning commences, it comforts us to know that if we ever return to that little beach bar, our mark will still be there.