Nathan and I, July 2008Nathan and I have known of each other since first grade, since we went to the same Catholic grade school for eight years. The classes of 60 were split between 2 teachers, so some years we were in the same group of 30, others we weren't. We hung out a bit in eighth grade, and he claims he had a fleeting crush on me, but when he went to the all-boys high school, and I went to the co-ed school, we didn't see each other for a couple years. He transferred to my school our junior year, and I probably passed him in the hallway a few times, but that was our only interaction.
By a random group of events the summer before our senior year, our circles of friends began to overlap, and I couldn't resist his sense of humor, charming ways, and blue eyes. From November of 2001 on, we've been together, through 4 years of colleges that were 2.5 hours apart, another year when I took a job an hour and a half from our hometown and he lived with his parents, and another couple of years finally sharing the same city again. Which brings us to June 29, 2008.
We had just spent the weekend out of town, seeing my second baseball game ever, and he got a phone call from the jeweler that my ring was ready. This, by the way, is a ring I knew absolutely nothing about. Apparently he and his mom had visited a few of the local jewelers, and he finally found something that felt "Lynn" to him. It had to be a custom order, and after he picked it up, it was burning a hole in his cargo pocket. I, oblivious to his recent purchase, didn't hurry home from family dinner/laundry night when he called wanting to go to the park that Sunday evening. At 10:30pm when I walked in the door and he still wanted to go, I didn't think much of it since it was a nice summer night.
We got to the swings, my favorite part of any park, and while I was swinging away and he started saying how much he loved me, I knew something felt different. The second he reached for the pocket of his shorts, I instantly knew he was reaching for a ring. I stopped swinging immediately, and I think my jaw hit the ground because I thought it would be at least another year or so before he'd be ready to get married. He opened the box to reveal a cluster of tiny sparkles and asked the question I never told him I couldn't wait to hear. I think I said, "Of course!" and then grabbed his hand and pulled him over to stand under the lamp post, so that I could see the ring more clearly. Through happy tears, I asked a million questions of how long he had been planning this, and we walked back home so that I could call all of the people that didn't know yet, my friends and family since his already knew.
I couldn't believe how many people began to ask, when's the wedding? as I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that my boyfriend of eight years was suddenly my "fiancé". I was so content to just be engaged, and I cherished that for as long as I could. And then the planning began...
July 3, 2008 saying, "Nathan, take my next Facebook photo!"
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