Happy 5 Year Datingiversary

To celebrate our five years of dating, I’m going to post our love story in several parts, one a week once in a while. So be on the look out for the next installment in a week sometime in the future. 🙂

Five years ago today, on November 10, 2008, Andy and I started dating. You would think that means that he asked me to be his girlfriend five years ago today, but that’s not exactly what happened. More accurately, 5 years ago today Andy asked me to marry him and I said, “Well… that’s a little too intense, but I’ll date you.” But I guess we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

The story begins… well it could begin in 1989 when we were born… but we’ll start in 2007 when the two of us arrived at the illustrious College of William and Mary. In fact, we unknowingly moved into dorms right next to each other in the same complex. I’m not sure when we met (I think it was in the first few weeks of school..?) but I know where we met – at the BCM House. I think Andy claims that he remembers the first time he saw me because he thought I was pretty but maybe he’s just trying to earn some brownie points. Honestly, I can’t remember the first time I met most of my friends. To me, it is the relationship I have with them that makes them memorable, not the first meeting.

I have a fuzzy memory of sitting with him and some of the other BCM Freshman at dinner and feeling awkward because I was trying to make conversation but failing. Andy is a pretty quiet guy and doesn’t feel the need to fill the silence when he’s in a group like I do. If he doesn’t have anything to tell you, he’s okay with being quiet. This characteristic probably contributed to me being convinced that he thought I was weird and annoying right up until the day he asked me out. Even to this day sometimes I’ll ask him, “Are you sure I’m not annoying you?” and for the millionth time he’ll tell me, “no”.

Our first ever Facebook wall exchange. Back when you had to write back and forth on a person’s wall to have a conversation. Thanks to Facebook I could go back and relive the awkwardness. Clearly this conversation is epic and has life long love written all over it.

The first two pictures I ever took of Andy. The epicness continues. If you had told me when I took these pictures that I was taking a picture of my future husband I would have thought you were crazy. Not because I didn’t like him, but because we were just friends and I was pretty sure that he thought I was weird.

The first picture we were both in on Facebook. (I know, the cheesiness is probably killing you by now.)

At some point during the Spring semester of our freshman year, my interest in him started to grow. He started to be someone I thought of when I wanted to hang out with someone. I needed a partner to play Spades with one night, and with lots of butterflies in my stomach I gave him a call. He walked me home from Spring Formal and we stood outside my dorm talking for an hour or more. At this point, I didn’t know how unusual this was for him. The whole time I felt super awkward and nervous. When I went back to my room, I told my roommate that I thought he might like me, but I wasn’t sure that I liked him. I was still trying to sort out my feelings after ending what I thought of at the time as a serious relationship a few months before. Ironically, when I would return to campus in a few short months, I couldn’t wait to see him after he moved back in.

CHAPTER ONE