I am a typical girl in the sense that I grew up watching movies portraying true love and happy endings. It all started with Disney Princesses like Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella to chick flicks like The Holiday, A Walk To Remember, Pride and Prejudice and He's Just Not That Into You (just to name a few favorites!). Starting at a young age, my small mind was filled with hopes and dreams of falling in love with a man who would sweep me off my feet and we'd live happily ever after. As this little mind of mine got a taste of reality, I grew to know that life was far from the movies.
I have had my large share of heartbreaks that I wish I could have avoided but they have most definitely built me into a stronger individual. In all honesty during those times of heartache and tears, my hopes and dreams of finding a man who I could share forever with were close to nonexistent. In 2010 the worst heartbreak I experienced occurred and left me (let's be honest) a pitiful broken mess (due to other issues as well) BUT eventually I was pieced back together better than I had ever been before! During this time of personal development and growth I decided to quiet down my hopes and dreams of finding "my prince" and focus on other aspects of my life. The funny thing is, sometimes the thing you are least expecting goes ahead and finds you anyways. In January of 2011 I ended up meeting the man who was an unexpected surprise and has become my prince in my personal fairy tale of life.
I first saw this certain individual at the hot tub at my apartment complex. We didn't even talk, I thought he was cute but he was only talking to his friends who were pretty entertaining and were doing backflips into the pool. My close friend (and roommate at the time) Stephanie and I got to talking to one of his friends who said the usual thing we heard from guys at the hot tub, "We should hand out sometime! What apartment are you in?" So we nonchalantly gave it to him without thinking anything of it. But surprise! Surprise! He actually showed up a few times and invited us to a few hang outs! We ended up going with him to the hot pots and a certain attractive guy came along as well! His first real impression of me (looking back): "Loud, hyper and obnoxious". My defense to that: "I was hyper and having a good time and when I get around certain people, I can just get a lil crazy!" Needless to say, I was very impressed with the way he looked in a swimsuit! Haha! I just have to admit it! A random but somewhat funny detail to include in this introduction story is that after we got out of the hot pots (freezing cold January mind you) I proceeded to put on some clothes but realized the jeans were loose and did not seem familiar in any way, shape or form. Come to find out that I had put on Shawn's by accident while he was searching around for them! After we dropped him off, I was very tempted to get his number because he seemed like a fun guy! But I stopped myself and shot him a few smiles and went on my way, asking about him on the drive back! A few weeks later...
His friend Mike (the one who got our apt # at the hot tub) asked me to come ice skating with him and his buddies. I inquired if Shawn would be there but he wasn't too sure if he would be. To my happy surprise he was! But there was a certain girl who was very touchy with him so I assumed that they were together. A bit of a downer but I decided to not let it ruin my night...although it did put a damper on it somewhat. Anyways, I went on some rounds around the rink and Shawn would catch up to me a few times and we would have a nice conversation about us and our likes, etc. (thought it was a little strange he would leave his gf to come talk to me) but I ended up finding out from Mike that he was single and so was she but she was very very interested in him. Ice skating ended everyone loaded up into Shawn's car and on the way to the very interested girl's apartment I got dropped off at my guy friend's house and Shawn told me he would get my number from Mike. I honestly didn't think he would (if he really wanted it, he would have just asked me for it was what I was thinking in my head) so I hoped he would but didn't shoot my hopes up too high.
The following week I was practicing piano at school for class and my phone got a text from an unknown number... :) Surprised again! It was him and little butterflies in my tummy got a bit excited! We ended up talking more and ended up hanging out (just us) one night and hiked this trail (end of january by now I think).
From there, things ended up escalating to the point of....e-n-g-a-g-e-m-e-n-t on August 15th
:)
Here's the story about that! (in full detail from my end so prepare yourself!)
Let's begin with the small detail that every month -yup sorry guys, I'm mentioning this but it's an important detail!- a girl has a cursed time of month where, yeahhhh things happen and sometimes she will PMS. So that was me on this night of the fifteenth. Shawn had asked me a few nights before if he could take me to dinner and if I was up for a hike afterwards and I was definitely all for it! Problem was I got a bit distracted before I had to leave so I was late for dinner. Oops! But anyways, I pick him up to go to dinner and I notice after about 5ish minutes that he was acting very very very unusual! (not going to lie, I thought he was on something because he was so hyper and ADD!) Anyways, his behavior was throwing me off guard because I felt like he was keeping something from me.
So dinner wasn't the best experience ever because him acting strange + me thinking he was hiding something + PMS = not a good combination! So dinner ended and I hate to say this, but I almost dropped him off at home!!!!! Yup, I was that strangely upset with him! But he (being the sweet guy he is) convinced me to talk about it and go on this hike (all the while the sun was setting while we drove up to it). Sidenote: We were going on that same hike I mentioned earlier that we had gone on when we first hung out one on one. We are driving, I get over my ridiculous-ness but am still kinda annoyed that I can't figure out his weird behavior, and I notice my gas light goes on. We get up to the parking lot and he tells me to pull over so we can hike and see the sunset but I was pretty chill thinking it was no big deal if we missed the sunset and took 15 min to go fill up. So we did and Shawn has become more quiet (a little more bit of annoyance because he kept telling me nothing was wrong).
We finally park, start hiking, Shawn is hiking as fast as the speed of light to the top and I'm struggling to keep up (thank goodness it was a short hike), and we reach the top! (out of breath a bit but in one piece! - it's a steep hike full of trees so it can be a bit dangerous when you're going so fast!). Enjoying the spectacular view, Shawn randomly asks me what that rock says below us on a lower cliff edge. Squinting a bit in the now almost faded sunlight, I depicted a carving that I thought said "MARTY ME 7" (since people rock climb in this area I thought it was some random guy's name, his state and his lucky number). Shawn said "Oh...that's random" and we sat looking in silence for awhile more till Shawn said we could hike down the cliff edge a little. We made it down without falling to our deaths (I had forgotten about the random encrypted rock) and he asked me again what the rock said. This time I was right next to it so I could see that my first reading of it was a bit off. It said:
And I turned and looked at him and he was on his knee holding out the ring and asked me if I would marry him!!!!!!.....I said no of course.
HAHA just kidding! It took me awhile to collect my emotions so I wouldn't cry (he wished I would have but I don't understand why he would have wanted me to!) but anyways while he was waiting for a response I guess he felt like he should fill up the silence so he added "Here's your ring" and wiggled it between his fingers. (haha he's so cute!) He put it on my finger and I embraced him with my answer: YES :)
That is my story of how we met and ended up at this new and excited point in both our lives. We will be getting married for time and all eternity on October 15!
I couldn't have dreamed of a better man to spend forever with. He is and has been my comfort and support, cheers me up on bad days, always listens and helps me with all my problems large or small, holds me when I cry, supports me, lifts me up, is an example to me in so many ways, loves me and reminds me of that and is my best friend. I love him with all my heart and he has swept me off my feet. I am excited for our future together and know that even though it won't be easy, we will have our own happy ending. Thanks for making this dream come true for me.
I LOVE YOU SHAWN!
