Let me tell you a story of a boy and a girl that began 6 years and one day ago. The girl, only 18 years old at the time, waited nervously in her dorm room for her date to come get her. The boy made a last minute trip for a single pink carnation before the first date of his entire life.
That boy is Nathan, and that girl is me. Six years and one day ago, Nathan treated me to a steak dinner. He stared at me awkwardly, not knowing what to say, not knowing how to navigate the waters of his very first girlfriend. He quietly tucked into his dinner as I chattered away, unaware of the significance this day would hold.
After dinner ended and the rain stopped, he drove me to the top of a hill. The sun was threatening to lower a little sooner than he planned, so he grabbed my hand and we ignored the mud as we climbed to the very top of that little hill in Blacksburg, Virginia. He put his arm around me and held me for a minute, rehearsing the line he wanted to say over and over in his mind.
Finally he took a deep breath and, with a shaky voice, he said, "Will you be my girl?" He meant to ask me to be his girlfriend, but it was too late - the words were out, hanging there in between two people who were little more than strangers in so many ways. I had been waiting for this question the whole summer and I confidently said yes.
That night, 6 years and 1 day ago, I said yes to many things. I said yes to teaching Nathan how to build a dating relationship. I said yes to being the first and only girl he had ever kissed. I said yes to awkward dates and not knowing what to talk about for the next few months.
That's how I viewed it at the time. But now I know...I said yes to watching a boy become a man. I said yes to being treated like gold not just during dating, but through the years of marriage. I said yes to a man who has opened his heart to my family, my friends, and all my dreams and wishes. I said yes to someone better than I could have ever hoped for, and certainly much better than I deserved.
Six years and one day ago, I said yes and never looked back.
Click here to read our story from the beginning.
