tomorrow will be 9 yrs that my man and i have been married! we'll have been together tho for 15yrs this august. crazy right? we are high school sweethearts. so....i was thinking that today i would tell our story or at least a part of it. so let's see.........
it all began back in 1996. we were sophomores in high school back in FL. he played tenor sax in the band and i was in the color guard. i knew him through friends, he actually was the boyfriend at one time of one of my really great friends! (but they broke up before he and i got together) so...we were at a weird performance we had to do. we were down at dodger stadium in to do a performance there...weird right? a MARCHING band at a baseball field!?!? just a tad out of place! anyways....i was hanging out with his friends and me with mine. i was talking with a friend who we were both friends with and started asking him about my man...was he still single? do you think he'd like me? silly girl questions....then the big one "will you ask him out for me!?" {lame i know, but hey it was high school and i was only 15} well......a whole THREE days later he finally got back to me. YES!!! {whew!!!! took him long enough!} it was a great feeling to me when he did say yes. he came over to me and casually held my hand right away!! {at 15 that's huge} the next night was a party at one of my friends houses and i invited him to go with. that night was kinda just crazy fun on many levels but it was another big night for us! our first kiss!! it wasn't like all those movie first kisses where you find yourself alone with your honey, with soft music playing somewhere and you're just gazing into each others eyes....no this was a "truth or dare" kind of first kiss. it was my turn and i chose DARE {sigh....i was always one to take challenges lol} well, our friend M said "i dare you to kiss S" well....i got totally nervous...i'd really only known him for like....what 24hrs? if that!!! well....S just said "oh come here..." and man did he plant one on me!!!!!! {total butterflies in tummy moment} the rest of the night, whenever we could sneak away.....let's just say there was some practicing going on.
since then, we were always together as much as we could be. i was the good girlfriend who didn't complain too too much about him always going out skating with the boys, sometimes i would even go along.....i learned to grind and skate backwards....and usually ended up on my very bruised bottom lol we would go to movies or just hang out at each others houses. it was really good. really good. simple fun getting to know each other and fall in love....
the first time he said "i love you" was a crazy night!! we were lined up on the football field for a home game performance waiting for the announcer to finish his stuff. luckily his starting point was like a yard away from mine. he turned around really quick to say a quick "good luck" then mouthed the words " i love you"........i was so, just....wow. that night i hit every mark, caught every toss, just the best show. later at our third quarter break, i hugged him and shyly asked "what did you say after good luck".....{i so had to hear this out loud} he smiled down at me (i'm just the perfect height for him, i fit right under his chin!) and said "i said i love you" and of course i totally said it back to him and meant it. i'd never known a guy like him. he always made me feel special and took time to hear what i had to say. and this was all at 15/16.
the rest of high school we were together. i think we were the second couple in the school who was together the longest. at the band banquet held at the end of the year, the seniors of the year give little speeches, usually thanking everyone and passing on words of wisdom to the younger ones. when it came to mine, i was too choked up to even talk the first time. i had to let someone go ahead of me. when it was my turn again....S came with me. he held my hand and helped me get though it. we were 18 at the time. then graduation came............
since he was a child, he always knew that he wanted to be an animator. there were many times when we were hanging out when he was playing on the computer with some kind of animation program trying to figure it out. he got accepted to the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale. this was so amazing for him....but two hours away from me. i had dreams of becoming a paramedic. i grew up around them and figured it was what i knew might as well do that. the first year was horrible. i went with him and his roommates to move in, helped set up his room, and just was there. we ended up spending the night and his first class was the next day. i rode with his friend and brother and he drove in his car, and we followed him to the school. when he turned in and we didn't i lost it. i, quietly as i could, sobbed in the back seat all the way home. i was so proud of him, but missed him like mad. the distance was tough and we actually broke up for a little. but things worked themselves out and we were back together. i would go spend a weekend or he would come up home and we'd be together. we made it work.
after a semester of EMT training, i knew it wasn't for me. i slacked during my second semester. i didn't return for the second year. i honestly still regret these actions, but it's in the past. i got the crazy idea in my head the i would move to Ft. Lauderdale. not in with him, but at least down there. so i did. man.....that was so flippin' hard to do. i was on my own for a good 4 months before i had a roommate move in {who later became my bestest friend ever. we're total soul sisters} i ended up going to the same college he went to but for something else. things were crazy tough but it was easier being together. we broke up again for awhile, almost to the point where we both were considering "moving on" from each other. i had a HORRIBLE job where i had to travel across the state. on one of these trips i heard a song...."hanging by a moment" by lifehouse. i heard that song over and over and over the whole like 3 days i was there. i couldn't hear it without thinking about S. i knew then that i was meant to be with him. when i got back we talked and worked everything out. we were completely together with each other and both knew that we wanted to be with each other. he was 20, and i was just getting ready to turn 20. for my 20th birthday he say me down and told me something amazing. we were both getting ready to graduate in june of 2002. so this was my birthday of april 2001, and he told me that from now till then that i should be looking at rings!!!!!! but little did he know that i had my heart set on my grandmother's engagement ring that was willed to me. {she was the best lady and i still tear up missing her} but the proposal wouldn't come till after graduation. i was over the moon with happiness.
i was planning on going to PA to visit my sister for a week in sept. 2001. S turned 21 in sept and we spent the day riding roller coasters at islands of adventure in orlando. during the day, i started feeling kinda queasy.....but chalked it up to all the roller coasters. then...hell broke lose. sept. 11, 2001. my mom called in the morning to let me know about the first plane. S had spent the night because the a/c was broken in his place. i woke him and told him and we kinda just thought "oh...drunk pilot..." then the second plane. being a college student i didn't have money for cable, so i was trying to find all the info on the radio. we drove to his place and watched the news all day. my flights had been canceled to see my sister. she called a week later asking if i wanted to take the train up. yes. after the 11th, i was feeling horrible. wasn't hungry, cranky, and just tired all the time. and i missed 'something' big. i chalked it all up to the stress of having our world turned upside down. but on the safe side on sept 19th....i took a {test}. well......that was one test i wasn't sure how i felt about passing and man did i pass. all 4 that i took. i was 20 and he was 21 and all we really had between us was love and a spoken promise. i'm so thankful for how my parents and his took the news. our world was shaken again. we were all dealing with the aftermath of the 11th, his brother was serving in the navy at the time, a cousin was supposed to be on one of the two plane that hit the towers, and now....a baby. we both knew that whatever it took, we were keeping the baby.
he was a rock through it all. he went with me to every doctors appointment. held my hand and joked with me about the instrument used for an internal ultra-sound. {if you don't know what i'm referring to, think about the shape of something for "lady fun" that uses batteries...you with me now?} when we saw our little peanut for the first time, we both had tears. then the next big ultra-sound was finding out the sex. our little peanut was a girl!!!!! we were so excited!!!!!!
that christmas break, we drove home to see our parents. it was the first without his brother. but we all made it through. he and i have a tradition that since i'm so impatient when it comes to christmas morning, he would give me something small on christmas eve and it was usually a winnie the pooh bear. every christmas eve, his parents would do a big dinner and invite family and friends. we always did that with his parents and christmas day dinner with my parents (at that age we were already doing the "swap holidays" lol) well....i couldn't wait for my gift...i did mention i was impatient. so about at 11pm-ish he brought me inside from where we were hanging out with family and said it was time for my gift. on his bed was a long big box that was oddly shaped. i opened it to find a pooh bear dressed in a tux with my grandmother's ring in its box with his hand writing on a note "Will You Marry Me?". i gasped an immediately said "YES!!!!" best gift ever.
we were 4mths pregnant at the time and i had just for the first time felt our little peanut move inside my warm belly. it was such a happy time for both of us. i'm not saying it was easy and completely blissful....being so young, in college, learning to live together for the first time along with his 2 other roommates, and growing up so fast this way...it was freaking hard. but we made it work. we planned on oct 2002 for a wedding. it would have given me 6mths to get "back into shape" for a dress. but....i had a moment where i didn't want to wait that long. i was driving to work and had to stop at his place of work and ran in and said that i didn't want to wait. i was ready to start this marriage asap and being parents. we were engaged on dec. 24th 2001 and planned to be married on march 24, 2002. 3 months later. i thought our parents would kill us with this lol. but they didn't. they worked with us and planned...................................
part 2 "the wedding" tomorrow......
2 comments:
So enjoying this story. Waiting with baited breath for the next chapter. :)
Ahhh I remember the college days... what a trip back in time reading this... I remember it all, the move (ha ha remember how we thought each other sounded bitchy based on our vm's ha ha ha but we were soul sisters since the first meeting), the break up, you coming home (although you were pretty much living at S's) with a brown paper bag of pregnancy tests and telling me how scared you were. I feel so blessed that I got to be there to support you both and to witness those tumultuous and exciting times in both of your lives.
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