Ramblings of a Young Me: Every Love Story Is Beautiful, But Ours Is My Favorite

One of the blog's I follow, the writer's name is Alicia ,and Alicia has been writing about how her and her husband met. She wanted to write down their story so she didn't forget the details, and it made me want to do the same. I've already forgotten some of the little details, and I know that as I get older I'll only forget more. With this in mind I sat down at the computer tonight and wrote out how we met and fell in love. I wanted to write it all down to make sure that I can tell our kids (and even grandkids) our story someday. After finishing I thought, "Hey, maybe I should put this on my blog too". So, here's our story. Our full story.

I remember the first time I ever saw him. He was walking down the school hallway wearing a black soccer polo, with khaki pants and a white pooka shell necklace. He was with his best friend Matt Madigan. I thought he was the most handsome boy I’d ever seen. I asked around about who he was and found out he was dating a girl in my class named Ali. I went home that night, lay on my brother Matt’s bed and asked more about John Merrigan. “Don’t even think about it, Piper. He just broke up with Ali, he’s done dating girls your age”. Knowing that I didn’t have a chance with him, I let it go.

At the end of my freshman year I started dating my best friend Andrew. I loved that boy. I thought I was going to marry him. But not long into the relationship things started turning sour. He broke up with me multiple times; I was always crying over something he had said or done to me. My family hated him, but I thought we’d get through it. Soon summer was over and I started my sophomore year of high school. I was so wrapped up in my failing relationship I didn’t pay any attention to any other boys….except for John. I always thought he was cute and I always wanted to get to know him. Walking into my World Civilizations class for the first time I realized there was a senior sitting in the classroom. John was Mr. Sprinkle’s TA for the year. The first day he sat in the teacher’s chair, but after that, he sat in the seat behind me every day. I never understood why- nice, comfy leather chair or hard, wooden desk chair….didn’t seem like too hard of a choice to me. He hardly ever spoke; he just sat behind me, listening to me chatter away with my friends Alene and Aaron. Every now and again I would feel him pick a piece of lint off of my shirt or something like that, but he never said anything to me. I had signed up for the track team that spring, and my friend Aaron who was also on the track team had asked me a question about a meet coming up. John was also on the track team, but his priority was soccer and at our school, If you did both and went to soccer practice, track practice wasn’t required. This meant that John had no idea I was on the track team. When Aaron asked me his question, John piped in and said something to the effect of, “I don’t know why you’re asking her, how would she know she’s not even on the track team”. I snapped back with a reply like, “If you ever showed up to practice you would know that I am on the track team”. That day I thought he was rude and sarcastic. Not long after that my doctor told me I had to quit the track team.

I was still in my on again off again relationship with Andrew, and then it was time for prom. I wanted to be tan, like every girl does, so I decided to try a spray tan. Simply put, I turned orange. I was so embarrassed and I didn’t want to go to school. I walked in to my World Civ class and the first person to say anything was John. Thanks to him, for that week (and periodically until I graduated) I was called orange slice. He thought it was funny, I however was not amused. A couple weeks after prom Andrew and I broke up again for the last time. I was heartbroken.

John called my brother Matt one Friday night before school was out to ask if he wanted to go to a movie with some of the guys. I answered the phone. Matt was in the shower so I took a message. Monday came and after school Matt told me that John was asking him who the “hot” girl was that he had over Friday night. Matt had no idea what he was talking about. John asked him who the girl was that answered the phone when he called because apparently he thought she sounded really “hot”. Matt, grossed out, told him that the girl who answered was his sister.

Finally, the last day of school came. Everyone was signing everyone else’s yearbooks and John asked to sign mine and then handed me his. I didn’t have anything to say to him. I thought he was rude, sarcastic, and he gave me a horrible nick name. I wrote something generic like, “Good luck in college our soccer team will miss you” while he wrote, “You’re hot. I would date you any time”. Thinking that he was innocently flirtatious like the rest of the guys in school I didn’t think anything of it.

That summer I started working at Golf City Mini Golf course. One night I had worked all night and finally got off around 11:00. My friends Shalie and Alene asked me to come over to Matt Madigan’s house, which just so happened to be right up the street from mine. Alene wanted to see a guy named Mike that she was interested in; Shalie liked Matt Madigan, and they wanted to set me up with John. I told them I was tired and wasn’t in the mood to go out. Eventually I finally gave in and headed up to the Madigan’s. When I got there all the boys were playing xbox and my friend’s were sitting on the couch. I went over and sat next to them and started to talk. Then the boys put on a movie. Everyone started cuddling up, and John came and sat on the floor right next to my feet. Alene pushed me off the couch and onto the floor. John pulled out his phone, text something on the screen and showed it to me. I think it was just a generic question like, “How was work”. I pulled out my grandpa’s phone (who’s I had to borrow because I wasn’t allowed to have my own yet) and replied. We did that throughout the movie until it was time for me to go home. Right before I left, John grabbed my grandpa’s phone (not knowing it was my grandpa’s) and put his number in it naming himself “Sexy”.

A couple days later I was on the computer and got an instant message from him. I had no idea who it was or how he got my screen name. He said one of my friends gave it to him. We started talking and I was starting to realize that my first impression of him was wrong, he was actually a really nice and funny guy. He asked me out on a date, he said that it could even be a group date with Shalie and Alene if it would make me feel more comfortable. So Me, John, Alene, Mike, Shalie and her brother Zac all went to the drive in and saw War of the Worlds and Mr. & Mrs. Smith. After our first date, John and I went out a couple more times.

Shalie and Zac’s parent’s owned a cabin up in Island park and their family was heading up there for the 4^th of July. Their parents said they could each bring one friend. Shalie invited me, and Zac invited John. During the day everyone did their own thing; Shalie and I hung out, while their parents went out and did things, and while Zac and John did something else, but each night everyone ate dinner together and then watched a movie right before bed. Shalie, Zac, and their parents fell asleep early every time so it was just John and I still awake. One night John and I were cuddling on the couch and he pulled me over so I was then sitting on his lap. I leaned in and kissed him. He asked me if I was sure that I wanted to do that, I said yes, and then he asked me if I would be his girlfriend…I said yes again. Then I went to bed.

The next day was July 4^th and I felt really awkward. That afternoon I told him that I had changed my mind. I told him he didn’t know anything about me, so I didn’t think being official was a good idea. We watched the fireworks, came in and watched a movie, and sure enough everyone fell asleep but John and I. Then it was really awkward. I told him I was going to go to bed. I stood up and started to walk away and he asked for a hug; I walked back over, gave him a hug and started for my bedroom again. Then he said, “You said I don’t know you”, “Because you don’t” I replied. “Then let me get to know you” he said. “What do you want to know?” I asked. Then he said, “Everything”.

That night we stayed up until 6:00 in the morning talked about anything and everything. We talked about religion, our families, school, past relationships; I told him I had just gotten out of a really bad relationship, and he told me that it had been 1 year since he had gone on a date with anyone. I asked him why he waited a whole year and he said, “Because until I saw you, I couldn’t find anyone worth dating”. We talked until the sun came up. Zac and Shalie’s parents woke up, saw us still talking and told us we’d better get ready to head out because we were leaving to go home soon.

After Island Park John and I were inseparable: he was always at my house, or I was at his; we went on dates around town, he would visit me at work all the time (and I let him and his friends play free rounds of mini golf) it was the perfect summer romance. Although we had agreed we could see other people, neither of us did. Before we left for Island Park I had about 5 dates lined up, but I canceled them all when I got back because I knew something great was happening with John. One night he took me out to Denny’s for a milkshake and fries, after we were finished he drove me back home, walked me to my doorstep and asked me if I was ready to make our relationship exclusive. I said yes. That was July 13^th of 2005 (ok….technically July 14^th because it was a little after midnight).

John and I dated for 5 amazing years after that. For my 21^st birthday John and I went down to Vegas with Tina, Dave, Zac, Kevin Griffin, Craig, Tommy, Chelsea and Philip. Our first night there we were walking the strip and we decided to go watch the Belagio fountain show. Tina, Dave, Chelsea and Philip decided to go inside the hotel, while the rest of us watched the show. Later, the other four joined us and we all watched it together. I was trying to take pictures of the fountain show and John kept pulling my arm while trying to get me to give Zac my camera so he could take a picture of us. I was a little annoyed because he kept blurring my pictures, but I handed Zac my camera and smiled for the picture. Then I felt John move and looked over. He was down on one knee, holding a beautiful diamond ring. I had no idea what was going on. He asked me to marry him and I said, “Are you shitting me?? Are you serious??” After realizing what was happening and that he wasn’t joking at all, I said “YES!” A crowd had formed and started clapping for us as we kissed and as I showed off my pretty ring. I immediately called my parents, my grandparents, my brother, and Lizzie. Ten months later we promised each other forever in front of God, family and friends at The Canterbury Place in Bountiful, Utah.

I feel extremely blessed to have the relationship that I do. We have our moments; I'm not perfect and neither is he, but together we make it work. In the (almost) 7 years we've been together we've never broken up, never threatened to break up, we've never even thought about walking away from what we have. At first this awed our friends; people just couldn't believe that we were so perfect for each other. But we are. I hope that I always remember how lucky I am to have such an amazing man who loves me and cherishes me. I know in my last post I was in a bad mood and was venting, and I aired a little bit of our dirty laundry, but our story that I just shared with you is who we are, and it's who I hope we will always be. I still think he's the most handsome man I know; I still get butterflies when I look at him (especially when I can get him to wear a pooka shell necklace), for some reason he still loves my voice; I still think our summers together are those perfect summer romances and that, well....that's my fairytale.