Life in Beta

I snuck it in at the very bottom of this post about the Seether concert last week, so I know a few people skimmed past and didn’t catch it … Mike and I are engaged! We haven’t set a date, and we haven’t even really decided how big or small of a wedding we want to have, but I thought I’d start a series of posts about our plans as they progress. Hence, Wednesdays are for Weddings. For my first post, I wanted to share our story. (Because I’m a sap, and I think it’s kind of sweet.)

Once upon a time in September of 1999, I was 17 years old and starting my senior year of high school. On my first day of class, my friend Sam and I walked into the lunchroom and were searching for a table to sit at. We decided to sit with her younger brother and some of his friends, one of whom was Mike, who was then a 16-year-old junior.

We sat down at their table, Sam introduced me, and *bam* it was love at first sight. I took one look at this shy, sweet guy who was incredibly tall and handsome, and I fell head-over-heels. That first day, I flirted with him relentlessly and made it my sole mission during the first weeks of my senior year to get him to ask me out.

A few weeks later, Sam, Mike, and Sam’s then-boyfriend were all hanging out, playing football at Sam’s mother’s lake house. Somehow football lead to throwing each other into the lake (because that’s just what you do when you’re a teenager). Eventually Sam and her boyfriend disappeared to change out of their wet clothes, leaving Mike and I alone on Sam’s sun porch. Mike had managed to escape being thrown in the lake, but I hadn’t and I was wet and cold and without a change of clothes, so I’d snuggled up to him to warm up. I remember looking up into his eyes, and him leaning down and kissing me … and that was IT. We were inseparable from that moment on.

(Cheesy scrapbooking was cool back in 2000…)

He joined me at football games while I was cheerleading … we went to Snow Ball and Prom together … we did all the things that high school couples do. And we were so happy. Looking back, I seriously had the storybook “perfect” senior year with him by my side.

I graduated from high school in June of 2000 and some time during the summer after that, things fell apart. I don’t think either of us wanted it to, but there were so many outside pressures along with the changes that were occurring in both our lives: me starting college and him getting ready to enjoy senior year. I remember the tear-filled phone call when he broke it off. I remember driving to his house and trying to talk it out with him, and that he ignored me and continued mowing his lawn instead. I didn’t eat for 2 or 3 days and wouldn’t get out of bed (because I was 18 and overly dramatic). I thought it was over and maybe that love-at-first sight was a bunch of B.S.

Obviously, that’s not the case, and true love DOES win out in the end!

But you’re going to have to wait for Part 2 to find out what happened during the next 10 years to bring us back together!!