In trying to think about how to pare down the magnitude of the story that is meeting the love of my life, I tend to get very flowery in my words. To keep it short for the sake of this post from my own perspective, I’ll highlight just the big moments for me.
He stole my initials in 2nd grade. I continue to steal usernames from him online for this, to this day. Actually, in retrospect, this is such a pivital memory for me because our teacher at the time used the words “it’s not your name” because I simple refused to write an extra initial. I was SB for two whole years before someone stole my name. It’s the oblivion then and now, for me. OG SB, for life.
I wrote my number in his yearbook of 8th grade, he called me actually at the end of that summer beginning 9th grade high school. He asked me to be his girlfriend over AOL Instant Messenger LOL.
Our first date was to the movie theatres to see the Jackie Chan movie “The Medallion.” I remember borrowing a top from my mom, and my younger sister chasing us in the building to snap a Polaroid picture. This was 2003. We were 14 years old.
Our relationship in high school was overshadowed by his older sibling getting pregnant their senior year. Everyone was in our business about sex – parents, teachers, and peers.
We decided to apply to different colleges and ended up accepting to different universities in the same city. We also split up for a while here.
Our mutual friends invited us to a concert in the city, and through just general companionship over similar interests, we started dating again.
We moved in together, in both of our first apartments, on Gadsden Street in Columbia, SC. There we adopted our “christmas cat” Cadillac, and I sneaked in Poops the Dog from our hometown – without Steven’s full consent – shortly after. We were looking for a fresh start by graduation in 2011 and we had job offers from within South Carolina but we both wanted something different. Steven had prospects in Madison. Steve asked me to marry him late one night, in our home, a few weeks before we were set to move. I said yes. We were engaged for a year or so.
Once Steve secured the job in Wisconsin, and we signed papers on the first apartment in Madison, we held a rager with our friends, packed our shit in a uHaul the next day, and left. Transplanting to a new climate was tough. Finding gainful employment as a first year educator in a new state was hard for me personally, and it still is at times. After leaving my first teaching job, Steve and I decided to get married. We hired a professional photographer off Craigslist, invited about 5 friends, and was officiated by the woman I was privately working for at the time. We were 23.
I have since relied heavily on Steve’s stability in his personality and his profession and it has afforded me the privilege to chase some wild, wild dreams of mine. Together, we have visited three different countries and made more memories than I could ever share over a date at brunch. Ask me about my thoughts on Long Distance Relationships (LDR), if you ever need some hope there too.
The story of “meeting Steve” for me is still in motion as we have changed and grew together in ways that our teen selves wouldn’t have thought possible. Consistently he has provided me the sweetness and gentleness I need in my life. Meeting him has been the thing that drives me, for better or for worse, into the person I feel I am meant to be. I wouldn’t trade the companionship in this lifetime I have shared with him for anything. At the time of writing this, Steven and I have just turned 34, and I have loved every version of us I have met, and will meet, since. <3
