Love Is Patient

Their story begins a decade ago in the small town of Orono, Maine. Yes, a decade ago. It was the end of August and both Tara and Josh were entering their sophomore year of college at the University of Maine. Both had known of each other due to having mutual friends however, never had the opportunity to meet during their first year at school. It was the eve of the first day of classes and both were excited to move into Hart Hall (fitting right?). Josh had traveled the now familiar 6.5-hour journey to school while Tara was already settling into her new room. When out of nowhere her roommate said excitedly “Hey, the ‘boys’ just got here, let’s help Josh unload his car”…So, Tara and her roommate walked down the three flights of stairs to finally introduce herself to this so called “Josh” kid. Now, still to this day, both Tara and Josh remember their first interactions with each other very differently. Tara says, “I saw Josh from across the parking lot unpacking his 2001 Jeep grand Cherokee. He had just set a box of his things down on the ground when I politely smiled and waved hello." Josh says, “Hey Tara, remember that time I first met you and you completely ignored me by not saying hi back?” “That’s definitely not true, I waved!”, exclaims Tara. Josh barks back “No, you didn’t even bat an eye at me..” And to this day they continue to dispute each other’s story about this very moment and argue and laugh and argue some more but then laugh again as if they are already an old married couple. They’ve been together for almost a decade remember? Either way, what matters most, is that soon after this they became best friends. They spent all of their free time together. Tara brought Josh all over Maine – Maine became their home – and the place where they fell in love...with lobster. Kidding, they fell in love too. And today, they often reflect on the small town in which they met having no idea that it would only be the beginning of their story together.