because this week is my sixth (!!!) wedding anniversary,
I’m sharing the story of how I met & married my husband.
//part 1 :: love at first . . . nevermind//
//part 2 :: and so I asked him out//
part 3:
Many moons passed. AKA 1 1/2 years. I was now a 2nd semester sophomore.
Jonathan and I never really saw each other at school. If we did, we said hi and kept going our separate ways. It’s not like there were any bad feelings between us, it’s just that we had no interest in communicating.
One day that January, I opened my email to see a note from Jonathan asking if I would go with him, my cousin {same guy as in this pic}, and my cousin’s fiancee to one of the musical productions on campus. Knowing my cousin, I totally assumed he was trying to ‘help me out’ and had asked Jonathan to invite me. I was not super impressed, but decided to go anyway. Little did I know that Jonathan had been interested in me since before Christmas break.
We went together, nothing really spectacular happened except I remember he didn’t walk me back to my dorm after the production. That only confirmed my {incorrect} suspicion that he wasn’t interested in me.
Incidentally, we had a class together that semester. Music Appreciation. It was an early class, so a friend and I would usually walk to breakfast and sometimes Jonathan would ‘randomly’ walk with us.
3 weeks pass.
I get a second email from him, asking me to lunch. Lunch happens.
2 weeks pass.
He asks me for lunch again.
1 week passes.
We go to lunch again. And after this, we start going to breakfast together after every Music Appreciation class. Who knows how much appreciation of music we gained, but we sure started appreciating each other’s company a whole lot more.
I told him a long time afterwards that I assumed he wasn’t interested in me since he let so many days go by before asking me out again. But he was just trying to go slowly so he wouldn’t scare me off. Wise man.
That summer, he came to my home for a visit. His visit coincided with my brother’s wedding. That was kinda crazy timing. I remember thinking, “I don’t think I like this guy enough to marry him.” And of course, the fact that we were together at a wedding where all my long-lost-friends + relatives were didn’t really help, because of course they assumed we were the next couple.
The next semester, I sat out of school to travel and do children’s meetings with an evangelist, so Jonathan and I did the whole long-distance relationship thing.
And then November came. And with it, a lot of soul searching, gut wrenching, tear jerking {how many more of these can I add?} times.
I was so confused. My poor Dad. I kept calling him in tears, telling him I thought I should break up with Jonathan, not really giving him any good reasons why, and just asking him to tell me what to do. He would gently say, “Honey, you know him better than I do.”
GAHHHH.
With many tears, I broke up with him over the phone. But we agreed to get together the next semester to talk about it.
So that next semester, we met in the campus snack shop. We didn’t even get anything to eat. It was the worst conversation ever. Basically, it went like this:
Jonathan: “Sooo, you think we’re done?”
Me: “Yeah.”
___
I told you it was terrible.
We both left. I went back to my dorm and bawled my eyes out. Who knows why. I was in distress and had no clue what to do. Poor Jonathan.
___
Fast forward approximately 2 days. I’m trying to sleep and I can’t. I figure out what the problem is.
The next day, I call my dad:
Me: “Dad?
I think I’m in love with Jonathan.”
{much conversing happens}
Dad: “Well then, you better tell him.”
___
Oh boy. Awkward conversation number 34987594387, here we come.
I have great plans to finish out this series this week. Feel free to subscribe by email to get the rest of this story to your inbox!
part 4 :: say yes to gilbert
part 5 :: say no to drugs {especially when getting engaged}