Five Years Ago...
Almost six years ago, I sat in my first college class staring at the back of my future fiancé’s shirt and I had no idea what was about to happen. Exactly five years later from when we first made it “official,” we are now in a completely different place in our lives and only four months away from sharing a last name. Tomorrow is mine and Jacob’s five year anniversary and since this will be our last time celebrating on June 10th, I figured I’d take it back a little bit to where it all began...
I was 18 years old in my first college psychology class. I was probably shaking like a leaf and sweating in places I’d rather not admit, and the fact that I had the cutest boy sitting in front of me didn’t help at all. I was too scared to talk to him, so I just kept to myself while trying to figure out what the cartoons meant on the back of his shirt. I named him “Skinny Jeans” in my head because that’s what he always wore and I secretly hoped he’d try to talk to me. That didn’t happen. The semester was over and we went our separate ways.
The next semester rolls around and we ended up taking the exact same science class, but had no idea because we were each at a different campus. I suck at science, so when the professor announced a field trip to earn extra credit I was all about it. I didn’t feel good the morning of the field trip, but I knew I had to go because I needed that extra credit. When we arrived at the location, I was even less pleased. It was basically a ditch on the side of the road where we were handed hammers and told to “search for fossils.” Ha! If you know anything about me, you know that was not even about to happen. So I stood there, apparently looking as bored as possible. And guess who ended up going on that same field trip?? Skinny Jeans. So not only was I not feeling good, I was also hot, sweaty, and tired with a handful of useless tools while realizing that I needed to look cute and hope that he remembered me.
He did! He remembered me! He started talking to me trying to get me to cheer up and dug me up some cool rocks shown in the picture above (quartz), but the only things I could think about was 1.) How did he remember me? and 2.) What in the world is he saying? The thing about Jacob is that he is very smart. He uses a lot of big words and knows a lot of facts that no one else knows. That’s not what I wanted to hear while in that situation, but I went with it because he was super cute. Once the field trip was over, he asked for my number and finally got me to go on a miniature golf date with him a few weeks later.
We golfed for about an hour and then talked in the parking lot for four. He was cute, but I held back quite a bit because I didn’t know his intentions. I had already known of his plans to move to California and because of that, we spent as much time together as possible. Some of our favorite things to do were go to the beach (I was so tan that Summer - look at that throwback picture below), eat (usually it was Mexican, pizza, or he’d cook something delicious), go bowling, hang out with his friends, or just relax at his house.
He hadn’t met my parents because at that point, they weren’t taking us very seriously and we hadn’t discussed any plans for the future once he moved to California. I did meet his family, though, on a few occasions and already thought how they’d be the nicest in-laws. Seriously, I can’t tell you how blessed I am with them!
That was the best Summer of my life.
We had avoided talking about what would happen when he moved to California just because it was such a sensitive subject. Neither of us wanted to think about it. We finally discussed it two weeks before he moved and needless to say, we were both in tears. That’s when I really knew exactly how much he cared. We never thought we’d be in a long distance relationship, but decided we’d rather put in the work for that than give up what we had already created. The day he moved (two days after the picture below) was the hardest thing I had ever gone through. I still remember that day and those emotions like it was yesterday. But in the end, it was all worth it.
A year and a half later, I moved to California to be with him and we’ve been inseparable ever since. From here, I explained the rest in our Engagement Story post. Five years is a lot to go through. We’ve been through birthdays, holidays, vacations, career changes, college graduation, car buying, house purchasing, dog owning. We’ve done a lot and I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world. Sorry, world.
I knew I loved Jacob from the very beginning and voiced my emotions pretty early on in the relationship. He was a little more hesitant at first, but it came out eventually. Now he’s very vocal about it! It’s the cutest thing ever! He’s the best, most chivalrous gentleman that I have ever met and I can’t explain enough how lucky I am. ♥
~Christina~
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