A few weeks ago I was looking through some old scrap-booking stuff and found the ticket/invitation to my high school Junior homecoming (yes, I save literally everything):
"A Night in Paris, October 2nd, 2004".
Man that takes me back. That was not only my first formal dance, but it also happened to be my first date with my eternal sweetheart :) And could the timing of this blast from the past have been any better?! Just in time to celebrate a first-date-iversary! 8 years ago today... my how time flies. I feel a story coming on here, don't mind if I do!
Tim and I actually grew up about two blocks away from each other, but were always in different wards and went to different schools, otherwise this story could have started much earlier. But never mind that. Where we pick up is the end of our sophomore year of high school. I had turned 16 right toward the end of the year and for my birthday, a long time good friend of mine asked me on my first date. Ben and I had known each other since first grade but had gone to different middle schools and reconnected in high school. For the date we doubled with another couple, my best friend Darcy, and Ben's best friend Tim. I had met Tim a time or two at various large group weekend activities. I'm sure I thought he was cute, but would never have admitted it.
After that night the four of us were inseparable. Darcy and I had already been connected at the hip, and Tim and Ben were quite the dynamic duo, so to merge two couplets into a nice set of four worked out perfectly. We ran around all summer and by the start of our Junior year had developed quite the friendship. When Homecoming rolled around, it seemed pretty natural to keep the double date thing going, except this time we switched up dates a bit. Ben asked Darcy, and Tim asked me.
I of course said yes.
And from then on, we were hooked! The details of the next few years are a bit fuzzy... our accounts don't match up completely. I was anti-boyfriend and may have put Tim through the ringer just a little... maybe quite a bit... ok maybe a lot... No need to get into the details, but for some reason he thought I was worth it enough to stick it out. He asked me to every formal dance and just about every weekend date he could.
And, I always said yes.
By the end of senior year I was pretty smitten (though I still wouldn't really admit it) and had a good hunch he was smitten as well. While he served a mission, we wrote letters back and forth. I was off to college then and by the time he got home, I was looking to turn in mission papers of my own. But when the Lord has plans and things are meant to be, they always find of way of working out. I decided to stay, a few months later Tim asked if we could date,
I said yes.
A few months later, he asked me if I would marry him,
I of course said yes.
And the rest is, as they say, history!
Those young homecoming goers had no idea what was in store, but could I go back in time and tell them, I would say to do it all the same. The last 8 years have been in a word,
perfect!
How glad I am that I said yes to that first date!
