Palo Alto, March 5 of 2000

Speech for my wedding.

Dear friends, this is a very important day of my life and I am honored to be here in your company.

Sandrita, ... thank you for making this possible!

In preparation for our wedding, Sandra and I were asked among other things, why we wanted to get married... and I think that this very important question deserves to be shared with you, who are sharing our wedding with us.

I will read to you the text of my response:

"Because I have found a partner that can help me get even more out of life than I would get by myself. Because sharing the good things in life with some one makes them even better and because we need to share the bad things so that we can get through them."

I have not found a wife. I have found a partner and that is a wonderful experience.

Different events in my life and in the life of those close to me have left some very important lessons. 

It is very important to do things because we want to do them, not because we have to do them.

It is very important that we take the time to appreciate what we have and not to spend our entire lives after the things we do not have.. and may never get.

We were put in this world to be happy and happiness comes in very different forms. I want to share with you my personal and most significant form of happiness: Happiness to me is to have something to be enthusiastic about. 

There are too many things that we do not have and will never have, some of us will spend our lives struggling for what we think will bring us happiness and forget to appreciate what we already have and those that we have close to us. 

When we are put 6 ft under ground, and sooner or later we will all be there... but we will not meet each other, we will not be able to have that nice conversation we have been postponing all our life... and also, there is no room for bringing our wonderful possessions and there is no more time to continue pursuing that dream.

The time we have is now... while our eyes can distinguish the beautiful colors of the ski, our ears can hear the wonderful song of the birds, our skin can feel the cool morning breeze, our nose can detect the delicious perfume of the person we love and our mouth can taste the wonderful fajitas we are about to eat.

The time we have is now...

My friends, My loved ones, thank you for being here and for making this occasion even more special... and before we all go and succumb to the delicious margaritas waiting for us, let us reflect on how lucky we are with what we already have.