Lauren and I met in middle school as a direct result of our older siblings dating each other. From riding to church together, going on dates to our favorite sushi spot as the 3rd and 4th wheels, and pre-homecoming picture sessions, Lauren and I embraced the awkwardness that we were.

Towards the beginning of our 8th grade year, my family rented a lake house for a weekend and because her sister was invited, of course Lauren was also asked to join. I thought it would be another awkward date night only this time it would last for 3 days. And then I saw her… walking down to the dock in that bright yellow bikini. My heart dropped, everything went quiet, and I’m certain I looked like a fool. The weekend suddenly turned into trying to impress her by driving the boat with my hat backwards, seeing how close I could sit to her when the family watched movies at night, and asking to arm wrestle on the inner tube just to hold her hand. Coming back home, my crush on her remained steady and after a few weeks of gathering courage, I asked her to be my girlfriend and to my surprise she said yes.

The next 6 months were filled with riding to church together, double dates with our siblings to our favorite sushi spot, and pre-homecoming picture sessions because we still weren’t old enough to do anything on our own. We went through a rough patch leading up to Valentine’s Day but I was certain some chocolate covered strawberries would be the fix all. I gave her my strawberries, she gave me a stuffed ladybug, we began to walk to her house and she broke up with me. I was completely heartbroken as I walked back home alone and I made every effort to convince myself it was just a middle school relationship that was bound to end at some point and she was way out of my league anyway.

Our lives slowly began to separate as I lost hope in ever getting back with her. No matter how different our lives were however, there was always something we had in common with each other. Shortly after we broke up she began to sing in the church youth band I played drums for, she was the first person I saw when I walked into my first high school class, she rode with me to and from school junior year, and she would always come over to my house to borrow clothes/costumes for Friday pep rallies.

When it came time to graduate, she and I took opposite paths that were sure to never cross again with her at Mississippi College and me at the Air Force Academy in Colorado. Towards the end of my freshman year at the academy, I began to feel unsure if I would ever meet someone to spend the rest of my life with. I prayed for reassurance and trusted that the Lord would provide me with an opportunity to love someone if that was His plan. A few weeks later I felt an urge to check up on Lauren just to see how her first year of college went. We talked for a couple days and I never thought anything of it. Coming home from a family vacation that summer, I wished her a happy birthday and she responded by asking me to coffee. As I walked into Church Street Coffee shop, it was like deja vu to that time at the lake. I saw her sitting in the corner with that pink button down, hair up, and still way out of my league. We talked effortlessly for next 2 hours and I never even tried the best coffee in Birmingham. I left that coffee shop with a renewed crush on the one I tried so hard to forget. I spent the next week wondering if she was single, if she was the answer to my prayer and trying to gather the courage to ask her on a date.

3 days before I had to fly back to Colorado, I decided I had waited long enough so I asked her to dinner and again to my disbelief she said yes. We went to dinner, grabbed some coffee, and visited our middle school where it all began. At the end of the night we hugged each other goodbye and it felt just as it did 5 years before; I fell in love with her right then and there. The night before I left, we both agreed our feelings were strong enough to continue our relationship 1,000 miles apart and so we’d try. The next 6 weeks we talked on the phone for hours on end almost every night making up for the 5 years we hardly spoke to each other. In short time, she became my best friend and the days went by fast counting down to when I’d see her again.

Come Thanksgiving break, I felt I had waited long enough and I told her I loved her the night I flew back home. I really didn’t know what to expect from her in response but looking back I should have expected her to want some time to think it over. A few days later, in the movie theater parking lot, she quietly handed me a note that explained she had promised herself to only say those words to the man she could see herself being with the rest of her life but she was confident that man was me! To be told “I love you” for the first time by your middle school crush you never had a chance with is an incredible feeling.

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