How we became Us

Recently Joe and I celebrated our 8th anniversary, and I have been going back and forth on what I  wanted to say about it on our blog. But the thing is I am struggling to find  the words to sum it up. It and our relationship is amazing, and it has been an amazing eight year, and one of these days I am going to do a post that just is reflection on summing us/it up. But for now I think I will just reminisce about how we became "Us"or more accurately how we tried very hard to not become "Us."

We met due to the all to generic product of a good friend of mine in college having a crush on Joe. In fact this friend had a crush on Joe for months and didn't mention it to me at all. While she and I were planning a bonfire another friend asked if she was going to invite Joe. My friend blushed, said maybe, said no, said maybe, giggled etc. I was floored, did she have a crush and didn't tell me? Who's Joe? So I asked what was going on and she blurted out "I haven't mentioned him or introduced you because I know you two will  meet and then fall in love!" I laughed.

I laughed again after the bonfire when we did meet, and by no means fell in love. He wasn't my type, and from what I was told later I wasn't his.

We happened to have a few mutual friends and through these friends Joe started showing up at the same event I was at. We would say hi, casually talk, nothing special.


One late night I was in our college library typing away on a theology paper, sitting at a table right at the top of the stairs when Joe who happened to be coming up the stairs, saw me and said the casual "hi". I had just finished the paper, remembered that he once mentioned he was really good at editing, a task I obviously hate, so I seized the opportunity and asked, "Hey, want to edit a paper?" He concurred, sat down with my laptop but instead of editing started conversing about my ideas in the paper. Soon we were in a deep theological conversation that ended 10 hours later when the two of us realized we best be heading to class.


The next few months continued on just like that. We would run into each other and then end up talking for hours on end. I cannot tell you how many 10 or 12 or 14 hour nights were spent sitting in one of our cars just talking. We would always think that it had only been an hour or two and then be utterly shocked that it had been  six, we would say we had to go soon and all of a sudden another six hours would go by.

I didn't feel in love with Joe, I didn't have a crush on Joe, I didn't think about him non stop. I was just intrigued by him and really liked being around him. However, I was worried that things might develop into something more and I had absolutely no interest in a relationship.I viewed a relationship as something that would just hinder me at that point in my life. Without much internal debate I decided to be honest with Joe and possibly stop spending so much time with him. Unbeknownst to me he happened to be feeling exactly the same way and asked if I would meet him at Barnes & Nobles one morning for coffee.

We sat down with our separately paid for coffees and Joe began talking about his future plans, where he was in life etc. He ended his little speech with, "The thing is I have never met anyone with so much potential as you, but I really don't want a relationship right now." I slapped the table, started laughing and exclaimed with glee that I felt exactly the same!

Immediately afterwords a severely disabled man stumbled up to Joe, put his limp arm around Joe's shoulders, and with much physical effort said, "God told me to come over here and tell you that you are going to marry this girl." He then took is arm off Joe and stumbled away.

We awkwardly stared at each other for a minute or so, and then  I stood up said something like, "I am glad we are on the same page. I am sure I will see you around." Joe concurred and we said good bye.

We saw each other around a couple days latter, ended up having another marathon of a talk and decided we could hang out for the the next two weeks until we went home for winter break. However, once we came back from winter break we would not see each other, and not talk more than a casual hello.

On our last night together neither of us could say good bye. We didn't talk  about our relationship other than the occasional joke about it being a bit harder to depart  than planned. All to soon the sun started to rise, and we became painfully aware that departure was inevitable. Joe reached over held my hand and said, "Maybe we should just go for it." Being rather tired and not to sharp at the moment I actually  had to ask what the "it" was, and Joe replied, "us." We kissed for the first time, and have been "going for us ever since."