i know what some of you are already thinking, "come on, get real lady. this isn't a movie!" but hear me out. i truly believe that there are people and moments in our lives that are part of the plan, His plan. isn't that what having faith is all about? i'm not ashamed for believing in it.
i didn't always have this faith in the plan. i'll touch more on that later, but first let me start from the beginning.
it was early fall of '03 and i was a wide-eyed freshman, excited to enter my first year of high school. i had spent the summer with my best friend erica, who was a grade ahead of me, hanging out with all the cool upperclassmen i would soon be sharing the halls with. it wasn't until a few weeks before school started that i met him--the 6' 5", sweet faced, curly headed, senior soccer player i had seen a few times before and had always felt my heart beat faster for. i'm not sure what intrigued me more, his incredible hair or the laid-back, cool persona he had. either way, i was smitten.
andy circa '03. i mean, that hair?! how could i not?
now i'm the kind of person that when i want something, i gotta have it. my family blames it on my placement in the family as the "baby," because i've been known to throw a temper tantrum or two when i can't have what i want. internally i was throwing a temper tantrum because i had to have this boy as my boyfriend. i had to.
but i put my game face on and played it cool. i was a freshman and he was a senior. i couldn't come off immature or he definitely wasn't going to be interested. i told erica about my serious crush on andy "matrix" (←i'm so embarrassed, but i thought this is how his name was pronounced for nearly two months, before i discovered it was really "mat·trick") and she planned ways for us to casually hang out with him. it played out well because she ended up crushing on his best friend, adam, so the four of us spent more and more time together.
i soon came to find out, andy came with some baggage: a territorial ex-girlfriend*. his past relationship didn't end well and because it was so messy, andy innocently shared with me in one of our late night AIM conversations (holla at your girl, kingandy53!), he didn't want a girlfriend his senior year of high school, because he wanted to focus on enjoying his last year of school with his friends.
remember those temper tantrums i am prone to having when i can't have what i want? well, they were in full swing after he shared this with me. it only intensified my desire for him. but i wasn't giving up. i was falling harder with every moment i spent with him. so, i waited. till finally, after three months of what i felt was an eternity, in the basement of erica's house, on 11.11.03, my future husband, formally asked me to be his girlfriend. one of my most cherished memories--the beginning of us.
...the story continues with PART TWO: TIME TO GROW.
*i wanted to make note that while the ex-girlfriend and i didn't get off to a great start back when we were youngsters in high school, in love with the same boy, we are certainly friends now. maybe it was the common interest that lead us to friendship? :)
