A love story

Happy Valentine’s Day! Today I thought I would share a little love story with you. Bear with me.

(If you feel like reading a romantic story, please read on. If not, perhaps you will enjoy this post written a few months ago in which I wrote about how I came to love my Jack Russell Terrier.)

Our love story

The first time I saw Paul was in our school’s newsroom in 2011. He was one of the last students in for our first staff meeting of the summer. It was just a few weeks before school, or maybe even less, and we had to plan out the first issue of the year. He was wearing a blue button up shirt with a fresh rip on the sleeve, jeans and Vans. Such a cutie! The newspaper staff sat down at a round table in the center of the room. I made sure to be one of the first to sit and was happy when he sat next to me.

At least, that’s the way I remember our meet-cute. He remembers seeing me two years before when I worked as a cashier at the Carl’s Jr. on campus and he was a frequent customer. Apparently, I took his order more than once. Sorry sweetie! I still can’t remember that. There were too many customers to keep track of.

Although we each thought of the other as cute, it took us a few months of seeing each other every day to get together, or to even consider it.

We worked closely on our school’s student newspaper together. I was the news editor and he was the multimedia editor. It was decided during the first meeting I mentioned that he would write the news column ( I didn’t want to at the time). Therefore, I edited his column every week. We also had two other classes together – Videography and Online Media.

I sat next to him in both classes most of the time because he was one of the only people I knew. I had just officially switched into the major and had only been taking classes in it for a half year before that. Besides that, why wouldn’t I sit next to the cute boy? Paul, myself and my friend Karina the sports editor decided to group up for Videography, so we spent even more time together filming and editing outside of class for that.

We were both dating other people all during fall and nothing happened then. I thought he was cute, sweet, nice, funny, smart and all those other good things I enjoy in a person. But for some reason I thought I wouldn’t be his type or that we wouldn’t work out. I thought I seemed too young for him. At that time, I was 20 and he was 23.

Then, long story short it was my 21st birthday, I got drunk and told him how I felt. As I’m writing this, I’m trying to think of a more delicate way to put it, but that’s exactly what happened.

We were both finally single and I wasn’t interested in anyone else. Although I was trying to hide the fact that I was interested in him until I got some liquor in me. After one too many Long Island Iced Teas, I found myself sitting next to him. I leaned over, looked in his big brown eyes and started spouting nonsense about how cool I think he is before leaning in for a kiss.

I’ll admit, I was a little bit of a mess that night. I always laugh to myself when I think back to this moment in the car ride home. It was just Karina and I in the car. Drake came on the radio and she said, “I have a mad crush on Drake.” So of course I replied with “I have a mad crush on Paul.” She said something along the lines of “Yeah I know. I saw you kiss him.” We both laughed.

Oh man. This sounds like a ridiculous classic college story.  I’m not even much of a party person, so it makes me laugh.

After I broke the ice with that kiss things just clicked. We had been just friends for months but now it only made sense to date and see what would happen. We had a Starbucks date a few days later and talked about our families for at least an hour. That’s when I realized I had to give us an honest shot. After about a month and a half, we were in love.

Love is a funny thing that is near impossible to explain. It means something different to everyone, as no two relationships are the same and neither do the people in the relationships understand their love the same way. All I know is, I’m so glad I gave my guy a chance and he took a chance on me. Falling in love really is taking a chance. It’s being ready for heartbreak and letting yourself be vulnerable. It’s beautiful.

Today is our third Valentine’s Day. We had only been dating a week for the first one but were falling hard. We were such babies back then! When we talk about us back then, especially in pictures, we say baby us. That photo above is of baby us. Look at baby us! So young! We’re still so young. What are we going to be saying 10, 20, 30 years from now? I hope we keep growing up together for many years to come because he’s one of my best friends, he makes me happy and he helps keep me level-headed. I adore him.

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So, do you all have any plans for this special Hallmark holiday? It really means nothing if you don’t.

My sweetheart and I decided that traffic is going to be too crazy for us to meet up. It’s practically two hours on a normal day, so add Valentine’s Day into the mix and it’s a little much. We had an impromptu date on Wednesday because I happened to be in Downtown LA and was able to meet him in Santa Monica after. I should see him tomorrow too.

Instead, my mom, oldest sister and I will be having dinner together at a local restaurant. I’m pretty excited!