One Year of Dating

It was probably quite a surprise to some people to see me get engaged and married to someone I knew less than a year. I get it, when I look at the situation from the outside, I am completely surprised myself. I definitely was not interested in getting married so quickly and I definitely wasn’t interested in dating when I met Ethan.

When I used to hear people say that “when you know, you know” I openly rolled my eyes. It seemed like such a joke and so far-fetched that I would just nod my head and agree with whatever sappy love story I was being fed.

But here’s the thing, it’s true.

When you meet the person who is totally meant for you, it is quite obvious. Sometimes, it doesn’t happen right away. Sometimes, it happens five years after meeting someone. Sometimes, it happens after you’ve been dating for a couple months.

For me, it happened the moment I laid eyes on Ethan.

Now, I was in absolutely no mental state to be dating anyone. In fact, when I first saw Ethan, I just decided that I wouldn’t be dating anyone for a long time because I really just wanted to focus on myself. I was just starting my junior year of college and I was living with roommates I didn’t know on the other side of campus where none of my friends lived. I hardly knew anyone in my classes and I really enjoyed what was going on. I liked getting to know myself better and I liked leaving dating out of the equation. I was quite satisfied with where I was in life.

However, that was clearly not what was supposed to happen because around Halloween, my sister Shelby picked me up from classes one day and I told her that she needed to entertain me since I knew I wasn’t going to meet anyone to date and that she should just introduce me to her friends. She did. She took me to this apartment of guys that she was friends with and I saw Ethan for the first time.

I knew right away that he was the man I would marry. I didn’t even know his name and I knew he was perfect for me. I can’t even explain it more than that. I honestly just looked like him and it was kind of like, “Oh hi, there you are. I’ve been looking for you.” It was seriously that obvious.

Of course, being the hard-headed woman that I am, I quickly dismissed the voice in my head that said “that’s the man you’re going to marry…” and moved on.

Through the course of a couple weeks, Ethan and I would minimally interact every so often. On November 6^th, Ethan was at my sister’s apartment telling a story to all her roommates. I sat in and still knew that Ethan was the one, but wasn’t willing to give away the independence I had from being single, or make the first move. Luckily, as soon as I got home that night, Ethan found me on Facebook and messaged me.

What a cheeseball, huh? I’ll give him partial credit, though, because it did have to do with the story he was telling earlier. We flirted a bit and I fell asleep. The next day, I wrote in my journal that I might have a crush on him. Also, a bit of foreshadowing, am I right?

About a week later, I was stuck with no plans on a Friday night thanks to my new no dating policy, but Shelby invited me over to hang out with her friends, including Ethan. Right away, Ethan and I were drawn to each other. We were talking a ton and really enjoying the conversation. I was a little caught off guard because even though I had feelings about Ethan being “the one” I wasn’t giving it a chance to really happen until that night. Unfortunately Shelby had to go home and I didn’t have a reason to stay since I didn’t know anyone that well and I went home with her.

Ethan gave me his number that night, and I really wanted to text him after I left, but I didn’t want to seem desperate, and I was attempting to avoid the whole soulmate thing….. so I waited for him to contact me. He messaged me a couple minutes after I left and said I should text him.

You bet your bottom dollar that I did. We texted the rest of the night until really late. Around 3am, Ethan texted me saying that he thought I was really fun and that I definitely had to let him take me out on a date. In an attempt to deny the fact that I felt so strongly about marrying Ethan, I told him that would be fun, but I wouldn’t accept dates over a text. “Ha!” I thought. That’ll show him. Less than a minute later, he called me. I was giddy as can be and extremely impressed. We set up a date for a couple nights later, but we spent every day together until then.

Our first official date was on Tuesday, November 18, 2014. We went bowling and saw Interstellar. It was your typical first date. The only thing different was who I was sharing it with: my future husband, no big deal. A few days later, we became boyfriend and girlfriend and I kinda sorta quickly stopped denying that Ethan was the one. He possessed all the qualities I could ever want. He loves, understands and protects me. He makes me smile every single day and he is my very favorite person to cuddle with.


When I got home, around 2:30 in the morning, I proudly let all of Twitter know that I was in love. 

I guess you could say the rest is history, or something like that. But I prefer to say that we lived happily ever after, even though this is definitely not the end.

Happy 365 days of being madly, madly in love, my Ethan. 

I love you more now that I did then.

What’s your love story?