In the pro­logue titled “Be Ready When the Luck Hap­pens,” the author takes the read­er back to a for­ma­tive moment in the fall of 1965, a day filled with both strug­gle and pro­found growth. She had recent­ly begun dat­ing Jef­frey Garten, a charis­mat­ic and adven­tur­ous sopho­more at Dart­mouth Col­lege, and was vis­it­ing him on what she hoped would be a sim­ple, laid-back occa­sion. How­ev­er, Jef­frey had oth­er plans. Instead of a relaxed day togeth­er, he sug­gest­ed a hike up Balch Hill, locat­ed in Hanover, New Hampshire—a seem­ing­ly small but intim­i­dat­ing moun­tain. To the author, what she envi­sioned as a peace­ful vis­it quick­ly trans­formed into a phys­i­cal­ly demand­ing chal­lenge. She had arrived at Dart­mouth dressed for a social gath­er­ing, eager to enjoy a pleas­ant expe­ri­ence, but Jeffrey’s adven­tur­ous spir­it intro­duced her to a very dif­fer­ent real­i­ty.

As the hike began, the author, then sev­en­teen years old, felt both phys­i­cal­ly and emo­tion­al­ly unpre­pared. She reluc­tant­ly wore a pair of Jeffrey’s blue jeans, a ges­ture that felt inti­mate and a sym­bol of their grow­ing rela­tion­ship. Yet, as the hill’s incline steep­ened, she quick­ly grew tired and found her­self strug­gling to keep up, over­whelmed by the effort and dis­com­fort. This dis­com­fort was not only phys­i­cal but psychological—shaped by the strict and demand­ing envi­ron­ment in which she was raised, where resis­tance or oppo­si­tion was often met with harsh pun­ish­ment. Despite her deep desire to please Jef­frey, she found her­self unable to con­tin­ue up the hill and declared that she had reached her lim­it. It was the first time she had felt the need to assert her­self, stand­ing up for her own bound­aries, despite the pres­sure to meet expec­ta­tions.

Jef­frey, sens­ing her frus­tra­tion, play­ful­ly urged her to keep mov­ing for­ward, even try­ing to nudge her up the hill. Rather than com­ply­ing with his sug­ges­tion, the author decid­ed to take mat­ters into her own hands. Instead of con­tin­u­ing the dif­fi­cult climb straight up, she took a dif­fer­ent approach, choos­ing to walk back and forth across the path in an attempt to make the jour­ney feel less daunt­ing. Antic­i­pat­ing dis­ap­point­ment or frus­tra­tion from Jef­frey, she pre­pared her­self for a neg­a­tive reac­tion. How­ev­er, to her sur­prise, Jef­frey respond­ed not with anger but with laugh­ter, appre­ci­at­ing her inge­nu­ity and deter­mi­na­tion. His reac­tion was a moment of revelation—her own approach to the chal­lenge had been acknowl­edged and accept­ed, not judged, by him. His humor, sup­port, and under­stand­ing brought a sense of ease to the sit­u­a­tion, show­ing her that chal­lenges could be over­come with patience, laugh­ter, and mutu­al respect.

From this piv­otal expe­ri­ence, the author extract­ed two crit­i­cal lessons that would guide her in the years to come. The first was the real­iza­tion that life often presents obsta­cles that feel insur­mount­able, much like the steep climb up Balch Hill. Yet, these chal­lenges can be faced with a pos­i­tive mind­set, and by approach­ing them from a dif­fer­ent angle, they become more man­age­able. The sec­ond les­son was the impor­tance of hav­ing a sup­port­ive and encour­ag­ing part­ner who pro­vides not just help but a sense of com­fort and laugh­ter. Jeffrey’s abil­i­ty to laugh with her rather than at her and his encour­age­ment through a tough moment became a cor­ner­stone of their rela­tion­ship, teach­ing her that love and part­ner­ship were about more than just roman­tic gestures—they were about sup­port­ing each oth­er through life’s hur­dles.

Reflect­ing on this moment, the author real­izes how it shaped her views on rela­tion­ships and per­son­al growth. The expe­ri­ence forged a bond between her and Jef­frey, which would even­tu­al­ly lead them to mar­riage three years lat­er. The pro­logue sets the stage for the rest of the mem­oir, high­light­ing themes of self-dis­cov­ery, inde­pen­dence, and the impor­tance of hav­ing a sup­port­ive part­ner. The author’s will­ing­ness to share this ear­ly moment of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty invites read­ers to con­sid­er their own expe­ri­ences with chal­lenges and per­son­al growth, set­ting the tone for the rest of the nar­ra­tive. Through this sto­ry, the author encour­ages read­ers to embrace the unpre­dictable jour­ney of life with resilience, humor, and the right peo­ple by their side. The pro­logue ulti­mate­ly becomes a reflec­tion on the val­ue of love, inde­pen­dence, and the pow­er of hav­ing some­one who sup­ports you when the going gets tough.