And I Thought I Loved You Then

In August 2005 I was gearing up to begin my freshman year of college at the University of Saint Francis. Now by this point in the summer I had become acustomed to receiving mail from the university...tons of it. All the financial aid forms, scholarship letters, and registration information became a blurred stack of stress piling on my desk. But through all of this madness there was one item that I remember opening in detail. It was a small card with the university emblem on one side and - in true romantic fashion, might I add - a hand written letter on the other. The words scrawled out in purple ink kindly and simply welcomed me to the university and the honors program. It was signed "Jim Grady", who I was to contact with any questions, needs, or concerns about college life. I found it rather sweet in comparison to the stack of cold forms I had sitting across from me. I showed the note to Toni, who started laughing at the purple color ink and the handwritting. So, instead of tossing it out with so much of the other "welcome" mail, I placed it in my bookcase where it would sit for another 2 years and 2 months.

A few weeks later I was moving in for freshman orientation. Although I wasn't living on campus, I had a room for my 2 week orientation. I remember the bright blue summer sky and the quiet of the campus, so different from the busy open houses I had attended. While moving in I ran into my cousin, Danielle, and her friend Jen who were a year ahead of me and they helped me drag my stuff into the dorms. We chatted about college life and their own memories of freshman orientation, while making introductions to anyone they knew along the way. 

After making several trips back and forth across campus, a moment came that Jim and I both remember perfectly. Like so many life changing moments it happened quietly and only seems booming, earth shattering...momentous in retrospect. Jen and I were standing by the elevator in the Marion Hall lobby when she shouted over to the group of people who had been hovering around the front desk since I had arrived. In that moment she could have introduced me to 100 other people, but the only person that stands out in my mind is Jim. Maybe it was his long wild hair, or the Wicked baseball cap trying to contain it, but this meeting is burned into my memory. Jen introduced me as "Danielle's cousin", but he was "Jim". Not yet "My Jim", but "Wise Sophomore Jim", who I began running into again...and again....and again over orientation. 

This is how the story of Jim and I met. Believe me, the story gets better, and our story is something that I honestly treasure as much as what our relationship has grown to become over the past 6 years. I can truthfully say that not once - not a single time - did our relationship weaken, did we have doubts, have we questioned whether or not we should be together. In a world full of so much uncertainty, he has always been my constant, my rock, and a true compliment to who I am as a person. I only hope I've been as extraordinary a partner to him as he has been to me. But, I guess I have the rest of my life to prove myself worthy! It's like that song by Brad Paisley...and I thought I loved you then. That's how I feel :)

So, because I love our story so much, I have been inspired to do something special for our save-the-dates and incorporate our story into them. Here's what I'm thinking...

or something similar to this...

My sister aka maid of honor is a graphic design/illustration major and one of Jim's close friends/groomsmen is also a graphic designer, so I'll be working with them to create something special and affordable. I already wrote the story and have a layout in mind. When I showed it to Jim he literally started tearing up so I think I got it right ;)