Our story started back in 2009. You see, I decided to start using an app on Facebook called 'Hot Or Not' during the summer after I graduated High School. I met several interesting people, talked, and even added some of them as friends on Facebook, though I never actually met any of them in real life. One of which was named 'Chelsey'. Had I not added her, my life would never be where it is today. I never got to know her too well. I just knew she played a lot of soccer (which I happen to enjoy, though I'm not that great), listened to a lot of the same music, and happened to also be LDS. Time passed and I spent less and less time and focus on that app and started preparing to serve a two year mission for my church.
My mission takes place as one of the most powerful, treasured experiences of my life. I wouldn't trade it. It changed me for the better in so many ways. Eventually that came to an end. I went home and immediately started working on reacquainting myself with non-mission life. I jumped right back into social media, including Facebook. I had a lot to catch up on. Eventually, about a week or so after getting home (March 12, 2012), I saw a friend request from someone named 'Laura TheRomanian'. Normally I would be skeptical about just accepting a friend request from someone I hadn't heard of before. I looked at the profile and some of her posts a bit and decided (as well as having a feeling, or prompting, that propelled me) to accept the friend request. I later learned that she was going through Chelsey's friends and added me because she thought I looked cute from my Facebook picture. Time went by and I didn't think much of it, but I started liking some of her posts. Then, during the summer of 2012, I started actively commenting on her posts. I began putting more thought and effort into it. She started putting thought and effort into replying to my replies. She also started commenting on my posts. That was when we legitimately started to connect. Then one night I posted about going to the temple (August 23, 2012). While I was there, she left a comment on my post saying: "And I'm not with you??" And after getting home I replied: "Well if I knew you wanted to come I would have invited you. It was good though. I quite like the monthly ward temple days :)" She then told me that she did want to, gave me her number, and told me to text her.
Our texting started out slow. It would often be days between texts and replies. She told me I should gym with her on August 28th. The interesting thing is that is was her who inspired me to start gymming in the first place. I originally signed up for the Gold's Gym Express in Draper. Anyhow it took a while before any of our planned gym sessions worked out. We kept in touch. We started with our good morning texts, sometimes good night texts, and had many deep, long conversations. She also asked me to send her daily scriptures (which I put a lot of thought into). She said she was always prompted to talk to me. She started opening up over time. She started letting me in and revealing the deep struggles she faced with her past, the abandonment of her friend (Chelsey), the cheating of her ex, and the terrible things she faced growing up with her dad. All of that weighed heavily on her. I remember many times when she felt suicidal, where she felt like she couldn't take the pain and struggle anymore. I even remember a period of time where she decided she was never going to pursue a relationship again. I did my best to be a strong support to her during that time. It was hard on her, and because I had become her best friend, and cared so very much, I did all that I could to help her make it through that time. It brought me to tears sometimes as I would think about the struggles she faced and pray for her. Though she didn't realize it, she also helped me to grow and become better myself in many ways. Time passed and eventually Christmas Eve came. Her dad ruined that for her with drunkenness and violence and ended up going to jail. In the wake of that I was as good of support as I could be to her. On New Years Day 2013 me and my brother, Justin, went and helped her move into a different apartment. That was actually the first time I had ever met her in person, and it was a great experience, in spite of the unfortunate circumstances.
Over the next few months we started getting closer and talking even more. Eventually, after she broke it off with a guy she was seeing between early December 2012 and February 22, 2013, she suggested that we could finally go on an official date. To me, I was deeply grateful inside. I remember stalking that guy on twitter and when I did I figured he would never support the goals she had or be a very good match. I remained silent, but prayed nightly that whatever happened she would end up with someone that would support her and be exactly who she needs. It turned out that the mismatch of goals and values was exactly why she broke it off with him. Either way, that was a huge blessing to me. A couple days later she admitted that the first time she saw me she thought I was "completely attractive". I let her know I thought she was cute as well. That same day (February 25th), I happened to upgrade my gym membership and started going to the West Jordan Gold's Gym. We finally started actually getting some gym sessions in together. We bonded a lot through our time at the gym. Also, we began to admit that she was beautiful and I was handsome. Our texts got even more "cutesy" as time went on. To be honest, I stopped having an interest in other girls from about the moment we started becoming close friends in 2012, but that became even more true throughout 2013. We went on our first date on March 13th. It was long and amazing. We started by eating dinner at Olive Garden. Being our first date, of course we were nervous. It was evident to each of us. But we started to get to know each other on a more personal level. The food was delicious, and having each others company was even better. After that we walked over to the mall and spent a good while "window shopping" and taking pictures. We were going to find something else to do after, but we both decided we loved to gym and didn't want to skip, so we had an excellent gym session together. After working out we spent time swimming. We then sat at the edge of the pool and talked for a while. We realized that we aligned so much on politics, likes, and so much more. We were honestly more comfortable together than I had ever been with anyone on a date or in general. As self-conscious as I had always been about my body, I was relatively comfortable and confident. In fact, she always brought out the best in me. After swimming some more, we spent time in the hot tub and steam room to finish off our time at the gym. After some pictures, we went back to her place. our date had lasted from around 6PM until 1:30AM. After some talking I walked her to the door, said good night, and headed home. We both agreed that that was the best date ever for either of us up to that point. And it was.
In retrospect, me and Laura both felt that we were meant for each other and loved each other from that first date. That was the magical moment when we each realized we wanted to be together, though we weren't straight forward about it just then.
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