The day has come...

Harrison and I met on the band bus when I was in seventh grade and he was in ninth grade. We were traveling to play at a football game. Everyone was talking and this boy in front of me had pink lemonade Bubbilicious bubble gum (my favorite bubble gum). Well, he would not share it with ANYONE... except me. In my shock, I took the piece of gum and we started talking or maybe I forced him to talk (Ha!), but regardless a friendship grew. For over a year, we texted and talked on the phone to what became every day. My eighth grade year and Harrison’s tenth grade year - we took the leap of faith out of friendship into being boyfriend and girlfriend. To be honest, I was terrified since we were such good friends, but Harrison had no doubts in his mind. On our first date, Valentine’s Day of 2009, my mom dropped off Doris, one of my best elementary school friends, and me at the movies to see “He’s Just Not That Into You” to meet Harrison. During the movie, we touched hands and my heart practically jumped right out of my chest. This moment was probably one of many defining moments of our relationship that I knew how much I loved him. Not many people can say that they knew who the person they are married too was when they were young - I can. And I can tell you this - he was an incredible boy then and is an incredible man now. His kindness, love, selflessness, wisdom, intelligence, work ethic, and so much more have been constant. Harrison is truly a man of his word, a man of his heart, and will forever be the one I choose to marry over and over again.

It all started over twelve years ago or so now with a piece of Bubblicious bubble gum. We were on the band bus together, and I believe she was in eighth grade and I in ninth. I can’t remember how exactly it was initiated, but I ended up sharing a piece of bubble gum with her and exchanging phone numbers. We started talking very gradually at first. But by the time she was in eighth and I in tenth grade, we were spending hours on the phone talking to each other. In fact, we talked so much on the phone, a lot of times late at night or all night, that my parents took my phone away from me several times. By November of that same school year we started “talking”, as the saying goes, and we tried our best to keep our heightened attachment a secret. However, by the time January came, we both were ready (as much as we could’ve been at the time) to take the next step. From then on, our relationship was continually evolving. We continued to talk on the phone just as much, but our increased involvement with each other’s lives really began to develop us as a couple and as friends. We’ve now been a part of each other’s lives for so long and experienced so much together that I could extend this paragraph into a novel. I can’t even begin to imagine my life without her and would never want to. She is the most caring, kind, supportive, loving, happy, and heart-warming person I have ever known. She is everything I’m not, and I can’t wait for her to be my forever partner.

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