Ryan and I met on April 28, 2010. The church I was going to was joining with the church he was going to, so our youth groups were meeting together. It was a night of games, a short word, and some worship. He caught my eye from the start. When I saw him, I kinda went into creeper mode and didn't want to look away. I was 15 and he was 17. Little did I know that he was a youth leader and he could not date me at that point. My heart jumped for joy when we found out we were in a group for the games we played that night. I'm sure it was extremely clear that I thought he was cute.
I didn't see him until a month later, and I figured he still had no clue I existed, or if he did, he must have thought I was too weird to be within 10 feet of. This time we were on our way to a youth retreat that I had no idea would be one of my favorite memories ever.
The retreat lasted for 3 days. On the second day, we had a lot of down time and there was a lake with canoes and paddle boats. A friend of mine told me that I should ask him to go on a paddle boat with he, another friend and me. So I went and asked and after a bit, he agreed. Of course, my lovely friends knowing I liked him ditched us. So here I am, on a paddle boat with a really attractive guy that I know hardly anything about, but want to know everything about. We ended up spending 3 hours on that boat. We were both bright red from sunburn, but we didn't care. We'd become best friends that day. I liked him a lot more than a friend, but I, like most girls figured I had no chance.
After the retreat, we saw each other basically on wednesdays at youth group. We talked on facebook and he's told me that we could never ever be more than friends. I figured he was in love with another girl he was friends with, so I left it at "don't tell me we can't be more than friends, you just don't want to be..." Yeah, I was real mature. Actually, I was crying my eyes out because this amazing boy, my best friend who I liked so much more than a friend, never wanted to be more than just that, best friends. Eventually, I just started dating any guy who claimed they liked me. I didn't want to be alone, and I thought I always would be.
As time went on and I dated just to date, Ryan and I talked less and less. Eventually I stopped going to youth group altogether because I felt so depressed about my life. Once in awhile we'd talk a the phone or online, but really we didn't talk until my last boyfriend and I broke up.
I was sitting there looking through the contacts in my phone and when I got to his name, I thought, "well, worth a shot." He answered and had to hang up because he was busy, but called back as soon as he could. I think I just rambled about every thought in my mind and every emotion in my heart. The key thing in that conversation was when I said "Maybe Moe was right when she said I should just try to get you to date me." I didn't think anything of it other than that I wish he actually liked me, because it had always been him. I dated other guys because I didn't think I had a chance. I never expected what happened about 2 weeks later.
Mind you that we hadn't spoken other than that phone call in a very long time, so getting a very long message from him on facebook was unexpected. He told me about how he did like me, and was opposed to dating but still wanted to wait. I was floored. I didn't know what to say. I'd been hurt by a lot of guys in the past and since it had been so long since we'd talked, who was to say that he wasn't going to play me like they had.
It turned out that he was the same funny, sweet, caring guy that I had called my best friend so long before. After a little while, we started praying about if this was a relationship we should try and talking to people to find out how to do this right. It took about 6 months before we started officially dating. In that 6 months, I fell completely in love with my best friend.
Since then, we've had our ups and downs. We've fallen even more in love. We've decided that as long as we're together, we'll get married when we're ready to.
I love my boyfriend/best friend/partner in crime. He's my favorite person. He encourages me to be the best I can be and for some crazy reason he loves me the way I am and thinks I'm beautiful even when I look like a bum.
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