love story winner :: happy valentine’s day!

“My fiancé and I have a love story that goes way back to elementary school.  We were in the same first grade class and he signed my school yearbook, which I still have to this day.  In the second grade, my family moved and I had to attend a new school.  However, years later in high school, we had the same math class and made the connection.  We spent the year laughing our way through a class with an awful teacher and a difficult subject matter, Precalculus!  I considered him to be a very good friend and he was the reason why I gained confidence in myself.  He always told me how smart, intelligent, and talented I was in lacrosse and basketball.  Even though we teased each other, I knew he would always have my back and support me.  We had a great friendship for two years and I always thought he was cute and was curious if he felt more for me than just a friend.  I was too shy to put myself out there.  Our senior year of high school, he asked me to prom and our lives have never been the same.  We fell for each other and he told me that he had loved me since our Precalculus class.

A few months later, I decided to attend the University of Arizona in Tucson and we wanted to try long distance, because we would rather miss each other then be with anyone else.  Looking back on the four years that we spent in different states, I am reminded of long phone calls, large text messaging bills, crying over the love letters he would write me, and having constant heartache.  As Shakespeare once said in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, “the course of true love never did run smooth,” and that is what always kept us going.  Love is worth fighting for and we weren’t going to let a short plane ride keep us apart.  People thought we were crazy, but it doesn’t matter what other people think.  You don’t let the love of your life go because others think you are being stupid or naive that it will last.

A few years ago, I moved back to San Diego, and we have been inseparable ever since.  We are such a strong couple and appreciate each other so much.  Anything is possible if we try.  The day before my 24th birthday, I walked into my apartment after a long day of teaching, and he filled my living room with rose petals, stemmed roses, and candles, which were leading to my room.  He showed me a painting that his groomsmen created of the two of us.  On the bottom, it said “Marry Me?” When I looked back at him, he was on his knee with the most beautiful ring.  He told me that I was the love of his life and he knew it when I went off to college. My response? “DUH! Of course!”

It is now almost seven years after our first kiss when we were high schoolers, and I am thrilled to marry the love of my life and best friend in July 2014.  Some people are shocked to hear that our love story began in elementary school, but it has always felt right and perfect to me.  I met my soulmate when I was 6 years old and can’t imagine a more perfect Prince Charming to spend the rest of my life with.”