Since the moment I laid eyes on him, we have been magnetized to one another. Which is funny, because I found out a few years ago that I don't even remember meeting him for the first time.
It was our ward opening social at Aspen Grove, freshman year, at BYU. My girlfriends Nicole, Kaylie and I had hopped in the back of the car of our friend Brian's car. Apparently, Christian saw the caravan of ladies and immediately got in the drivers seat. None of us have any memory of this happening, which is no surprise since the three of us spent approximately 95% of our time that year being complete idiots and loving every second of it.
(To anyone who
(Also a testament to mine and Christian's love is the fact that he stuck around while he had, quite literally, a front row seat to the idiocy. Little did I know, he would be an equal partner in ridiculousness, which I am convinced is a cementing factor in our relationship.)
Anyways, HE remembers thinking we were cute and a little crazy.
I remember seeing him for the first time that following Sunday.
It was our ward prayer (Oh BYU), and from across the room, I noticed a cute blond boy, wearing glasses, moccasins, and a Jimmy Eat World shirt.
That was all it took.
We were instantly friends. We bonded over a mutual love of the same music, and I helped him ask one of the three of us inseperable idiots, Kaylie, to homecoming, while Nicole and I went to the Wilk, bought foot long meatball subs, ice cream, and went to the library to study.
I am still dying laughing at the memory. Who eats a footlong meatball sub?!?!
I must have been in love already, and just not known it, to have been driven to that.
We started hanging out. He thought I made a cute grandma when that was my costume of choice for Halloween (I mean, we were OBVIOUSLY trying real hard to impress those boys!). I had no idea what his V for Vendetta/Hansel from Zoolander mashup was about, but I obviously liked it enough.
Our first picture was born.
We decided to take our religion class together the following semester. It was there that things really started to blossom.
He would always get there before me. He had an early morning custodial job that allowed him ample time in the morning. I preferred to stay in bed until the last minute, which left me frequently arriving moments before class would start.
I would later find out that he would always be so happy to watch my walk into class.
He would later find out that I still like to stay in bed until the last possible second.
He used to take my phone during class (because of course we would always sit by each other), and leave random reminders. Towards the end of the semester, I was looking through my calendar and noticed a certain reminder he had created.
It said "Christian leaves today. Last chance."
I was in the car with my girlfriends, on our way home from general conference, when I read this. Immediately I was in a frenzy. What did this mean?!
It was in that moment that I realized I liked this boy way more than I thought.
(Flash back a few months. One day my mom and I were talking, and she asked if there was one boy from my ward that I would be interested in, who? No hesitation, I answered "Christian".
Obviously, the universe was listening.)
After much pressing and prodding (re: PEER PRESSURE) from my girls, I decided to text him and address the reminder I had found.
Ahhh. 21st century romance.
I don't remember exactly how our conversation went, but one thing was clear.
We liked each other.
We REALLY liked each other.
We like, LIKE LIKED each other.
There were mere weeks left in the semester, and we ate them up. After several failed attempts at dates (a movie in the library, where a few unknowing friends awkwardly tagged along, followed by another attempt at watching a movie in the common area of my dorm, where I'm pretty sure we got busted, because COPYRIGHT LAWS!), we finally secured a romantic night together, studying for our Book of Mormon exam.
LOL.
As things go, the night was fantastic. Not only did we both later slay our exams (you CAN study and flirt at the same time!), but we ended the night by sharing yet again, our epic love of the same music. This has been a common theme in our marriage, and one that I love so, so much.
The last night that we were both in Provo was......
....well.
It was magic.
We were playing cards in my common room.
(This is all I can think to call it, even though that's absolutely NOT it's name.
I can pretend BYU is Hogwarts, right?!)
Another girl who also had a crush on him, kept trying to chase him around, literally, while they were kicking each other? I don't know, freshman are weird.
I was getting fed up with the nonsense, because I AM THE ONLY ONE ALLOWED TO BE A CRAZY IDIOT HERE, so we moved ourselves outside.
I bought myself an orange juice from the vending machine.
Oh how I loved that orange juice.
We sat and talked about nothing, and everything, for hours.
Things were showing no signs of slowing down, so we decided to head out on a walk. It was about midnight at this point, and as the Little Mermaid said:
"But who caaaares? No big deeeeaaal! I want moooooooorrreeee!"
We walked over literally every part of BYU.
2am.
3am.
We were now trolling the perimeter of the entire campus, and I kept thinking to myself "I wish he would just hold my hand!"
And here you thought that late hour meant nothing wholesome could be going on.
That's right!
There wasn't even hand holding, folks!
When we got to the northwestern corner, right by the Brigham Young University sign, it hit me.
"I think I love this boy."
On the final leg of our walk, the romance came to a screeching halt when I was hit in the head with a water balloon, thrown by some crazies driving past us.
I am literally laughing out loud as I type.
You can't make this stuff up.
Christian was super frustrated, like a true gentleman.
And it was about 4am at this point, so we figured we'd stop at:
"We stayed out ALMOST all night together!",
as opposed to "We stayed out ALL night together!"
Because the latter just sounds a little more scandalous, right?
The following morning, we ate breakfast together. He helped me haul a trash bag of clothes to my car. And then we said goodbye for the last time in two years, as he was preparing for his mission to Uruguay 6 weeks later.
True to ourselves, there was not even a kiss goodbye.
I left for my home in Mesa, Arizona that afternoon.
The next day, Christian was heading home himself.
Melbourne, Florida.
As we hadn't really left things "anywhere", I had no idea what to expect for the next six weeks.
Imagine my surprise when I received a phone call from HIM! At the airport! He was leaving and just wanted to say "hi."
It was a phone call that kind of changed everything.
We talked for hours, almost every day after that.
The future.
Marriage.
Everything.
About two weeks before he was slated to leave, I made the decision to cut back on communication. After all, "he needed to be focused and prepared. Not fawning over some girl."
#righteous.
(At one point during that two week period, I received flowers from him on the same day that he took another girl on a date to the temple. I also had swine flu and was completely delirious with sickness. It was an obviously weird bump that we just pretend didn't happen ha)
And then began his two year mission.
We wrote very consistently. I got a letter from him about every two months, and it was joyous every time. I dated quite a bit, but no one could measure up to the bar he had set. Very near the end of his time in Uruguay, I had a close call and was essentially engaged for a hot second.
Guess I had lost sight of that bar he set, huh?
Thankfully I skirted out of that disaster waiting to happen, and a few months later HE WAS HOME.
A few more weeks of talking on the phone, and we were finally FINALLY reunited when fall semester at BYU started.
I swore for about a month that I was going to break up with him. It was just too weird and too different (because #freshoffthemish).
The major turning point happened one Saturday when we agreed to hike Mount Timpanogos together. It was as we ascended that massive mountain, at a shockingly fast pace, breathlessly talking in the uninhibited way that nature often begets, I realized I had fallen in love with him. All over again.
And here we are. Ten amazing years later.
Serendipitously, Jimmy Eat World will be in Salt Lake City next week.
We will go, and bask in the music that brought us together.
The ground we've covered. The letters we've written, the babies we've made, the laughter we've shared, the tears we've cried, the storms we've battled, the life we keep creating.
It's been the best ten years of my life.
"No one else will have me like you do.
No one else will have me, only you."
Only you, Christian Carter.
Forever and always.
