Return - Our Love Story

I love hearing stories about how couples first met. Maybe you do too? I could hear over and over again the story of when my parents met and started dating. So here is our love story.

I have always had a thing for soccer players. I am not sure what it is but they are just plain cute. Don't you love the part at the end of a professional soccer match when the players on opposing teams take off their shirts and switch jerseys? Is that just me? By far the best part of the game in my opinion. My sister even poked fun at my tendency to date soccer players in her toast/roast at our rehearsal dinner. You will not be surprised to hear that D played soccer at Earlham. At the beginning of my senior year and his sophomore year, I started to develop a little bit of a crush on him. But he was younger and I didn't know much about him. Except that he played soccer and had a great smile. I started to ask around to some of my guy friends in my year that played soccer and knew him. Everyone said he was a great guy so I let it be known that I was interested hoping it would get back to him. It did. If this story were told from D's perspective he would say that he was pretty surprised and a bit intimidated when he found out about my crush. Not because I was intimidating but more the idea of dating someone older. But I suppose he was interested enough to start making an effort to see me more. Most of those attempts didn't work out so the first semester ended and nothing had really become of my crush.

The start of the second semester was also the beginning of the indoor track season. D did some of the field and sprinting events to stay in shape for soccer and I ran the distance events. Even though we did different events it still provided more opportunity for us to interact. Eventually a couple on the track team decided to take matters into their own hands. The girl invited me out to dinner and the guy invited D. I suppose that was our first official date. The next morning we had a track meet and I got disqualified from my event and was pretty upset. I remember D came up to me and put his arm around me to console me. Sweet guy. That night after the track meet we hung out and had our first kiss in the hallway of his dorm. And then for the rest of the semester we were pretty inseparable. I remember watching movies in his dorm room and playing games like Pictionary and Cranium at the house where I lived with several girlfriends. He would bring me hummus and veggie sandwiches for lunch from the cafeteria since I was no longer on the meal plan. It was just the little things. One night all the girls at my house decided to use those Biore nose strips to see if they worked and D ended up stopping by and stumbled upon our goofy girls night. I am pretty sure I had a towel around my head and a white strip on my nose. I must have looked pretty ridiculous. The next morning my friend, Molly, and I were walking to campus and she commented that I totally act like myself around D. I hadn't really made that connection but she was right.

The two years between us did cause a bit of a problem because it meant I would be graduating and moving away. Richmond, Indiana isn't exactly the place you dream of living after college. Not only did I not want to live in Richmond but I had dreams of living in Japan. I continued throughout that second semester pursuing that plan and D even drove with me to Chicago for an interview to teach English in Japan. As decision time grew closer I really wasn't sure what I should do. D and I were talking about it and he told me that of course he would love it if I were able to live close enough to see other often but that he didn't want to be the one to keep me from living out a dream. He said we would try and make it work and hopefully we would stay together. So I went. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. D came and visited me for three weeks over his Christmas break and it was then that I knew that I had really fallen for him. We travelled all over and had an amazing time. I was proud of him for trying lots of Japanese food and in the mornings he made me french toast. I think you learn a lot about a person when you travel with them, especially in a foreign country. I came back from my year in Japan and spent some time in Oklahoma with my parents and then in January of 2001 I packed up my Honda and moved to Columbus, Ohio. I got a job with a Japanese travel agency and was only 2 hours from D as he finished up his final semester. He moved to Columbus that summer and we are still here. It is pretty amazing that we made it through two years of living on different continents, states and cities.

D talked to my dad over Thanksgiving in 2001 and he proposed on Christmas morning. He did it in front of my parents and sister, which was really special and showed how much he knew me and that I would want them to be a part of it. I thought he was getting me a rice cooker but instead a ring fell out of the box. We said "I do" on October 12th, 2002 in Tulsa. And I would say it all over again.