Our Love Story...

Last month at the end of September, my husband and I celebrated 8 yrs of marriage. It all started back in 1993 when we were both in High School. It was the 1993 - 1994 school year. He was a freshman and I was a sophomore, we had a math class together, I didn’t notice him but he noticed me. He was sitting in the row next to me but in a seat behind me. He told me he had the perfect view of me and always looked at me, and thought I was beautiful. I met Jason later that school year, when we shared the same study period. We had a mutual friend, who was a sophomore with me and she was in band with Jason. Our friend was also in the study period and invited Jason to sit with us at our table. Once Jason’s friends came to that study, he sat at their table which was next to ours. That entire school year we were good friends.

During the 1994 – 1995 school year our friendship grew even more. We both did not talk about being romantically involved but we had both thought about it. The last day of school we saw each other and wished each other a good summer and said our goodbyes. All summer long I couldn’t stop thinking about Jason. I wanted to call him on the phone, but I didn’t know his phone number. I looked it up in the school phone directory and saw that he lived in a town that I was unfamiliar with and it was in a different area code then mine. I hadn’t ever heard of that town and I was afraid to call him because I thought my parents would get upset since it might be a long distance call. So I never did call him. Meanwhile he was thinking about me all summer too, but did not call me.

At the start of the next school year, 1995 –1996, Jason was the first person I saw when I walked into school for book day. We both were very happy to see each other, with gleaming smiles. We talked about what we did over the summer. Jason told me he got a pager. I asked him to give me the pager number so I could page him. I paged him that night, he called me back and we talked for hours on the phone! That school year we started dating and our relationship grew even stronger. Jason and I went to all the school dances together. (Home Coming, Winter Ball, Spring Fling and Prom)

We spent a lot of time together. I went to Sectional’s with his parents to see Jason swim, I also went to Jason’s brother’s wedding and Jason went to my graduation dinner dance with me and my family. After I graduated, I went to a local college but Jason and I still continued our love relationship while he was still in high school. In September 1996 he threw me a Surprise 19th Birthday Party and in October we went to his Homecoming dance together. We had our first break up shortly after that dance. Jason had decided to join The Marine Corp after he graduated from high school and I didn’t think our relationship could continue because he would be away for so long. We remained friends through the rest of the school year, even though we were not dating.

Jason graduated, and went off to boot camp. While Jason was in boot camp we communicated through letters. I always looked forward to receiving a letter from him. After he was in boot camp for about 1 month, in our letters, we wrote about our feelings for each other, and how they never changed. We still very much loved each other and wanted to be together. In September 1997 Jason graduated boot camp and was able to come home for a weekend. That is when we started to date again. I helped his family arrange a party for him at his brother’s house. On July 3rd 1998, Jason got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I was surprised but happy. During our engagement, Jason was stationed in North Carolina. He was out of the country for a total of 1 year on two 6 month deployments. We did not see each other very much but for short visits before his deployment and after. We communicated through letters and once and awhile he would be able to call me. The last 6 months before our wedding he was out of the country. He came home less then a week before our wedding. We got married in September 2000! We went on a very short honeymoon because less then a week after our wedding I moved to North Carolina with Jason. We lived there for about 8 months as a married couple, then Jason’s 4 yr enlistment was over and we moved back home to Illinois.