The Sweetest Story I Know

I am an extremely lucky man. I have the absolutely most wonderful woman in my life. Better yet, she loves me as much as I love her. Incredibly, I realized today that I have written little about her in respect to how much I think about her.

The best way I can do so is to tell the story of how we met. I still think that it is one of the best stories I know, so I will share it with you.

Two years ago I left the US to study in Oman. While there I met a wonderful girl named Deanna who became a fast friend to this day. We became quite close over the course of the semester. It turned out that she lived in Chicago, not far from where I grew up and went to Kenyon College, not far from where I went to college. Throughout the trip I pined after and worried about the girl that I had left to come to Oman. From 7500 miles away, I was watching her steady decline into self-destruction. Deanna helped me find myself in the ugly situation and move on. Near the end of the trip, she began to tell me about a friend of hers from college who also lived in Maine.

Intrigued, I pressed her for details, and usually came up with nothing. She was very nice and fun, Deanna claimed. As for where in Maine, somewhere near Portland, maybe. Particularly useful if you understand that most of the people in Maine live somewhere near Portland. Eventually, I gave up digging for info and resolved to see how things took their course. Besides, I wasn't exactly dying to meet a new girl, more interested in finding a friend in Maine.

When I returned home, Deanna sent me the girls name and encouraged me to look her up on Facebook. I thought that it was slightly strange and stalkerish, but I did so. When I could see her profile, I found her address and looked it up on Yahoo Maps. I didn't pay too close attention to the town or details and was expecting to find some sort of hour drive or other impediment. You can only imagine my surprise when I found that her house was 0.4 miles away from mine. Just down the road really. Amazing.

We sent a couple messages to each other and agreed to meet for some ice cream at the store that is almost equidistant between our houses. We were both a bit weirded out by the entire endeavor of meeting someone random from the internet, but we both trusted Deanna. Besides, I had no good friends in Maine and all of her high school friends had left the state. So we each made the short walk to Food Stop. I got there first, and waited somewhat nervously, leaning against the guardrail set up to prevent cars from driving into the ice cream window. Only a couple minutes later, a beautiful girl strolled into the parking lot and I know it was her. We met, we talked, we walked, and we ate ice cream. We did the same thing the next day. And the next. Soon we were spending hours together each day, meeting whenever we had the time and when we didn't, sneaking out to sit together under the stars late at night.

Our first kiss was quick. The ones that followed lasted much longer. I was hooked. However, I was still scared of starting a new relationship after the disaster of my last one. She didn't feel the same, she wanted us to be official if we were going to continue seeing each other. I was terrified, but I could feel something special about her. So, I caved. I asked her to be my girlfriend and promised that it wasn't a summer thing.

It wasn't.

And now, well, as of tomorrow, we have been together for 18 months.

Sure, there have been bumps along the road. But through thick and thin, emotion and ration, we have remained in love. She is the most wonderful thing in my life. It is painful to be so far away from her, but so amazing that she is understanding and patient. I know that someday I will be able to give her that companionship she deserves. She is the best decision I've ever made, and I love her.