Once upon a time…haha just kidding. It’s only been 11 years (only? Sheesh.) since I met the love of my life while wandering the halls of Rockdale High School. That’s right, my sweet and spicy hubby is my high school sweetheart! We met when I was a jr and he was a senior. We started out as friends and started hanging out all the time. I remember going with him to ask his mom if he could come over for dinner one night and she was like “omg are y’all dating?” Super awkward. It was a few weeks after that before we ‘officially’ made it official. We were both super in to tennis in high school and we went for a tournament in Bastrop and the whole day my best friend Kara (who is now my sister-in-law —- that’s a story for another time) kept bugging Charles to ‘ask me out’. 

I literally just cringed writing that! Oh to be young and in love. 

Anywho I digress, Kara, Charles and I decided to go to a movie after our tournament and when I dropped him back off at his house he asked me to be his girlfriend. (Insert swoon/awwwwww!) We we’re inseparable the rest of his senior year and the summer leading up to his start of college and my senior year. But pretty soon fall came and he went off to A&M and I stayed back in good ole Rockdale. I won’t lie that year was pretty tough. All of my friends were in college and I was trying to make the best of my senior year. I rode the struggle bus quite frequently and I’m pretty sure my parents wanted to disown me for being a total sour puss all the time. Before long I graduated and we ended up at A&M together where we took the world by storm. I knew long before I graduated from high school that I was going to marry Charles. He was every bit of the man I had dreamed and prayed for. It’s funny because no one ever told us it was young love and that it wouldn’t last. It was like all of our friends and family knew we were meant for each other. 

While at A&M we talked all the time about when to get married and what we wanted out of life. Charles kept telling me that we were not getting married until we both graduated (I was NOT happy about this) BUT 2 days before Christmas in 2010 Charles took me to the church where we would eventually be married and got down on one knee. I may or may not have ruined the surprise part of the proposal but never-the-less I was so, so happy I was going to be his wife! I threw myself into wedding planning and we planned our perfect celebration for New Years Eve in 2011. I remember the day like it was yesterday. I remember being so nervous as my dad walked me down the aisle that I was apparently speed walking because my dad kept telling me to slow down and take in the moment. But I couldn’t, all I could see was Charles at the front and I wanted to get to him as soon as I could. 

We now are getting ready to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary. The past 11 (going on 12) years together has definitely been a rollercoaster. We’ve had our good times and we definitely had some struggles but he is definitely my person. We have two beautiful, albeit sassy daughter, Allison and Madelyn. We have built a life together that makes me so proud. 

When I think back to where we started in those halls of Rockdale High School I thank God for giving us the courage to push through and give our relationship a fighting chance. I can’t imagine living my life with anyone but Charles. 

The moral of the story is, your love story of how you and your fiancé met is unique and beautiful. Don’t be scared to let the world know who your person is! Every love story deserves to be told and shared.