The Beginning of our Story...

Once upon a time…

Just kidding! I'm not going to tell the story of how I met Jeremy like it's a fairytale. That's not how the real world works, but our story does have a beginning, as all stories do. One of the best gifts I have ever been given in my life is a journal that my mother gave to me for my thirteenth birthday. I began journaling then, and haven't really stopped since then. As a teen, I wrote almost every night, dumping my head full of random teenage dealings onto paper. Most of what I recorded as an early teen was basically my day to day goings on with a few hurt feelings and pity parties, and the occasional deep thought. The wonderful thing about journaling though, is that you can go and look back at your life, and see how far you have come. It reminds you of fun memories, crappy memories and your own life in general as it played out. So it's thanks to that habit that I happen to have a pretty accurate account of the day I met Jeremy for the first time. He was only one sentence in a journal entry, but that is basically how every relationship starts. (So thank you mom, for giving me that very first journal) (some names have been changed to protect the identity of certain persons…ha ha. I have always just wanted to throw that sentence in somewhere)

It was a hot summer night late in July 1998 and seventeen-year-old Emily was bored. She was trying to decide between going for a swim, and watching tv. She ended up wearing her swimsuit, sitting on the couch watching tv. She wasn't really in the mood to do anything that night, but her friend "Betty" called and wanted to go to the college church dance (You must be 18 years or older to get into these dances. No joke. They check ID's at the door.), but Betty didn't want to go alone and asked Emily to come along. Emily wasn't really in the mood for dancing, but Betty was her friend and she was begging, so Emily couldn't just leave her hanging. She went to get ready for the dance.

Meanwhile a few miles away…

Jeremy (twenty-four years old) was sitting around the house with nothing to do. His mother and sister were telling him he should go to the college dance. He didn't really want to. He is pretty shy and not much of a partier, but he was bored and decided to give it a shot. Before he left for  the dance his sister jokingly says, "You can't come  home until you've asked a girl for her number!" She knew he would NEVER do that because he's not that outgoing. (thank goodness Emily was or this story would have never happened.) Jeremy leaves for the dance.

Meanwhile at the church dance…

Emily was hiding in the bathroom waiting for the dance to begin. She had to come REALLY early before the "ID checker" got there, or she would never be allowed in. So, she was sitting there, waiting for the "go ahead" from Betty once some other people show up so she could come out of the bathroom and blend in with the crowd of college kids who actually belonged there. You see, Emily had graduated from high school shortly after turning sixteen (she was a bit of an over achiever, and she really hated high school, so she took extra classes, college courses and worked an after school job to get all the credits she needed ), so she wasn't exactly a normal teenager. She was more mature than your average seventeen year old, but driver's licenses don't give your maturity age (or most men out there would be stuck at the age of twelve forever.). So, even though Emily was mature enough to be at the dance, she wasn't exactly "legal" yet, and whenever a dance partner would ask the dreaded question "How old are you?", she never lied (she doesn't do that). She would tell them "I'm seventeen." and they would then suddenly have somewhere else to be. It was pretty discouraging for Emily to be stuck in dating "limbo" until she turned eighteen, which was why she didn't really want to come to the dance in the first place, but Betty needed her, and Emily was always a loyal friend. So, she was waiting in the bathroom for the go ahead. The dance finally gets going and there aren't too many people there that early on, so it wasn't exactly "hoppin" if you know what I mean. Betty decided to take off with some guy and left Emily at the dance (without even telling her. Thank you Betty.). Emily wasn't going to let that stop her from having some fun though. She was standing around with the twelve other people who had shown up so far. She felt a little foolish standing there by herself and she noticed a pretty cute guy standing alone too, so she thought to herself, "why not". She walked over to him and said "Hi, I'm Emily." to which he responded "I'm Jeremy." They started talking about how lame the dance was so far. More people began to show up and things got better. Emily danced with a few guys and one REALLY huge nerd that actually used the line "You are my density." (Back to the Future, really?) She danced with him anyway because she was a nice girl though. Jeremy asked her to dance a few times and they had fun (He had never asked her the dreaded age question, because thankfully, he assumed that since she was there, she had to at least be eighteen, right? ha, ha, ha!). She was pretty interested in him by then. So, when the dance was over and everyone was leaving, she decided to take a chance. She had not done it before, but decided "what the heck" and she quickly wrote her number down and gave it to Jeremy, telling him to call her sometime, before leaving.

Jeremy gets home from the dance and of course his sister asks jokingly "So, did you get a girl's number?" to which he answered "Yes." She didn't believe him. He showed her the small scrap of paper with Emily's number, but she still thought he made it up and was just messing with her. It still took him a whole week to get up the courage to call her, but he did. She invited him to go to Sonic with her and a few friends to enjoy one of her favorite things in the world (Vanilla Dr. Pepper and cheddar peppers w/ranch dressing). That was not a first date.

Their first real date was a double date with Emily's friend "Mimi" and some random guy (ok, it was my stepbrother, but that wasn't the awkward part). They went to dinner at 5 n diner and then went to see the new movie 'Armageddon' (remember that one!). The awkward part was that Jeremy said hardly anything the whole night. He was nervous, and that's just who he is. It takes him a while to warm up around people, but Emily didn't know that. She thought the date was a dud, and moved on with her life, while Jeremy moved on with his. The very next weekend though, Emily's friend Mimi was going on another date with "stepbrother" and wanted to double, the problem was, that Emily had no one to go with. Mimi suggested calling "that Jeremy guy" to which Emily vehemently refused. He was way to quiet! Emily was outgoing and loud and he just didn't seem very exciting to her. Mimi begged though, and Emily was just the kind of girl (and still is) that couldn't leave a friend hanging, so she called Jeremy and asked him if he wanted to go out with them. (though, it wasn't really what I would call a date, they were helping "stepbrother's" roommate move to Tuscon for college, so it was going to be an all-day thing.) Emily figured that at least she would have Mimi and stepbrother in the car to talk to though—nope! They ended up in a truck and somehow Emily and Jeremy ended up in Jeremy's station wagon (that's right folks he drove a station wagon! Emily was NOT impressed by that, but she's not so shallow she wouldn't date a guy just because he drove a nerdy car). Anyway, they had a two hour drive to Tuscon and back together. Emily wasn't too excited about it because she figured she would be sitting in silence the whole time. It wasn't until the ride home that Jeremy FINALLY started talking, like really talking to her and by the time they got back to Mesa, Emily thought "He's not that bad."

Three months to the day they met (July 31st), Jeremy and Emily got engaged (October 31st). The engagement story is a story in itself though. (I have that recorded in my journal too, but we'll save that for another time.) This was the beginning of a journey for Jeremy and Emily. A journey they had no idea would be so rewarding, and yet so difficult at the same time. When they decided to marry, they talked about how challenging life can be and they committed to each other on that night, that they would stick together, no matter what life threw at them, and life has thrown quite a bit at them since then. Fifteen years later, they still love each other, and life is still hard sometimes (ok, a lot of times), but they still try to stick together no matter what.

So that is the beginning of our story.