it's not just luck

We met about 2 weeks into my freshmen year at ORU. We were on "brother / sister" wings and thus had a gathering or two with our floors in the very beginning of the semester. Although we may have "met" at these gatherings, it wasn't until later into that semester that we got to know each other. Due to my major at that time, my life consisted of going to classes and loads of homework; this being said, I didn't get out (or sleep) much. My floor-neighbor Christina, who frequently visited my room to do work on my bed and watch me stress, ended up near dragging me out of the dorm one day to meet some friends she had made. She said that they were some guys she met from our brother wing, they were cool, and that we had "important things" in common; the commonalities turned out to be music taste, movies, wandering around outside, etc. It was over dinner with this group that I learned Weston's name and that this was the guy I found very cute at those floor get-togethers. He was quiet, rocking his purple beanie, but when music was the topic, he would speak-up about the amazingness of "Twenty One Pilots" and "August Burns Red." Soon after, my school-load cooled down and I began becoming a part of this established group. As I came to find out much later, Weston had liked me way back to my first year. What makes this funny to me is that, as Weston and I hung out more during these times, I undoubtedly believed that he was out of my league, so I never even thought about pursuing him or him coming after me. Because of this outlook of mine, nothing was nerve-wracking or weird; none of his actions nor mine were over-analyzed by me. This easy-going swing of things made our friendship grow. Obviously, Weston had a different take on the years leading up to us becoming a couple, something that wows me still. Hindsight is always 20/20.

It was the start of my sophomore year at ORU, and after being a relative shut-in during my freshman year, I had decided to branch out and meet some people. Because of this, I made sure I was involved in any of the events my floor put together, even helping to organize quite a few of them. When I met Lanie, we were making s'mores and watching a b-grade horror movie behind one of the buildings on campus (don't tell anyone about the s'mores thing, that probably wasn't allowed). It was a smaller group that showed up for this particular event, but I clearly remember noticing Lanie and thinking she was cute. To be honest, the horror movie we rented from one of the last remaining Blockbusters was terrible, but I didn't care, because I got to sit next to Lanie for the whole movie. Fast forward a couple months and we had formed a bit of a regular group of friends, and Lanie was part of that group. We all went to see "The Hobbit" at midnight, and due to ORU's frankly dumb curfew policy, we went to IHOP afterwards to wait out the curfew before we returned to campus. Well, a couple of our friends had to drive somewhere while we were at IHOP. This left Lanie and I alone at the table. Now, I don't think Lanie and I had really talked up to this point, so there I was sitting across from a cute girl and faced with the challenge of talking to said girl. If you know me, you'll know that talking isn't my strong suit. So with my heart pounding, I began to just talk to her, about anything really. Weather, classes, home, movies, you name it and we probably talked about it. It was that night that I decided that Lanie was probably the coolest girl I'd ever met, or at the very least, the easiest one to talk to. *Insert the White Stripes' "I can tell that we are gonna be friends" here*

Hanging out with my friends more and more throughout the first 2 years at ORU, I started - much to my dismay - to develop the proverbial "feelings" towards Weston. The reason for the concern here was that I did not want this to come between our friendship. Still believing he was too good for me and that there was a 99.9% chance that he didn't want to be more than friends, I tried to ignore and redirect my mind. After a few months of these "tactics" failing, I decided that I had to approach Weston to clear up that 0.01% chance that was driving me mad. These plans all revolved around how to salvage the situation for when he inevitably turned me down. I decided the perfect time to ask him would be right before his major's week long Las Vegas / Los Angeles trip, which was 2 weeks before summer. My reason for choosing this date was that, should Weston not take it well, he would have time away to breathe before hanging out again; it also meant there was time before summer for him to hang out with the group and see that nothing would be different between us - like nothing happened. I told both of our roommates the exact time this was all going to occur so that I couldn't back out. Eventually, with 1 hour before Weston's flight, I stopped him before we went our separate ways. Not looking into his eyes once, I told him how I would like to be more than friends and asked if he would too. When I finished, Weston started his response off with "Weeeelllllllll..." which I knew as his this-is-awkward-how-do-I-get-out-of-this tone. As this caused my brain to switch into "abort! salvage this" mode. He followed it up with, "I've liked you for a REALLY long time." My brain, which had now imploded and was not prepared for anything but a "No" from Weston, forgets how to function. That being said, my incredibly smooth response to this was, "Oh, well that's nice. I hope you have a good trip." I then turned around and ran away, not to see him for a week.

As I spent more time with my group of friends over the years, I realized more and more how amazing Lanie was. I started trying to find any excuse to hang out with her. I made more than a few trips to Walmart when she said she was going, even though I definitely didn't need anything. I would always try to find a way to sit next to her when we were out at a restaurant or coffee shop. This was all in an effort to figure out how she felt about me, without actually asking of course. The funny thing is that we are both terrible at reading people, and sending / receiving signals, so this tactic really got me nowhere. Speaking of getting nowhere; with the end of the school year rapidly approaching, our group of friends decided to go camping in Arkansas for the weekend. Due to schedules, we took 2 cars. This meant that I would be driving Lanie to and from Arkansas. This is now my biggest regret. I spent the entire drive there and back trying to convince myself to say how I felt, but I talked myself out of it. A few days later, Lanie beat me to the punch (and promptly ran away), and I don't think she'll ever believe that I was going to say anything. I like to think I redeemed myself by proposing the important question later on. Moral of the story: Don't be your own roadblock. Get out of your own way, and quit worrying about "what if?"

Lanie: Because Weston and I are open about everything together, I knew prior to him getting on his knee that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. This naturally led into us going through the ring-shopping process. Weston also knew that I didn't expect, nor really want, a spectacle or audience ("unless you want one, of course.") whenever he was going to propose. I enjoy casual outings and just simply being together and so a proposal that fell into that category sounded incredible. Being wonderful, Weston made the proposal simple, short, and sweet. We went for a walk which ended with him looking up to me. Even though it wasn't a surprise, I still cried and he still looked nervous. The evening ended with us eating ramen at our favorite ramen bar and then heading home to watch a movie together. My heart couldn't have been more full. Weston: What she didn't say is that she definitely knew it was coming too, because I left her in the car that same day when I went into the Jewelry store to pick up her ring. I knew she didn't want the proposal to be some grand gesture with a photographer and audience. I'm pretty sure that if I had done something extravagant, her response would've been, "Try again." Fortunately, one of Lanie's favorite things to do is just walk around. We went for a long walk around the neighborhood, and talked the whole time. I couldn't tell you what we talked about, because I was slightly distracted. At the end of the walk, I just knelt down and asked the question. Even though I knew there was no way she would turn me down, I was still incredibly nervous. I guess I still have a hard time talking to cute girls.