Since it is July and Seth and I's three year (where did the time go?!) wedding anniversary is July 22, I thought I would share our love story. Recently, I read a book called "A Love Letter Life" by Audrey and Jeremy Roloff and it's inspired me to share Seth and I's story. So here it is:
In 2010, my life changed forever. It was my sophomore year at Findlay High School and the beginning of the year. I walked in to my 9th period math class and noticed a guy towards the back that I had never noticed before. I also noticed that one of my friends was talking to him so a few weeks in, I asked her who he was. She told me his name was Seth Calvin and she said that he was a great guy. As the weeks passed, I noticed him in the hallways and saw that he was in a science class with my best friend, Taylor. I had asked Taylor about him and told her that I had a crush on him and her response was, "The guy that wears the same jacket every day?!".
Eventually it came time to change seats in math class. I went into the room, looked at the seating chart and saw that I was no where near Seth. I went to my teacher, Mrs. Cole, and asked her if she could move me behind Seth. She changed the seating chart and I was able to sit behind Seth. I would be as nice as possible, always thanking him for passing the papers back, I would try to answer questions correctly so he would think I was smart, and I tried to make small talk with him. I went on Facebook one day and looked him up. I added him as a friend and sent him a message that said, "I had no idea you were on Facebook, I thought you were anti-social" Yeah... not one of my best moments.
After that, we talked most days and nights playing the question game to learn more about each other. I finally got the nerve up to ask Seth when were going to hang out. He asked me if I wanted to go to the Christmas Lights at the Toledo Zoo with him and his family. Without hesitation, I responded YES. His parents picked me up with Seth in the back and his little brother, Joel, in the van as well. His parents told me about themselves and asked me questions about myself. Little did I know, that night I got a nickname, "Sparkle".
At the lights, I took everything in awe. It was amazing. I tried to be near Seth hoping he would hold my hand. He didn't. We went to dinner after followed by a car ride home. I was head over heals. Seth and I continued to talk and made another date to go see Tangled. After our movie date, we hung out again to go see my best friend Abby play a basketball game. Once I dropped Seth off at his house, I texted him and said "are you ever going to ask me to be your girlfriend?". His response: "I assumed you already were". On December 22, 2010, Seth and I officially started dating.
After about 2 weeks of dating, on New Years Eve, Seth and I both told each other we loved each other. I thought I was crazy and tried to be realistic about it but I couldn't deny my feelings for him. We dated throughout high school, we'd hang out almost every day or whenever we could. I was in show choir so Seth would come to my shows and he put up with the crazy schedule that comes along with being in show choir. We'd spend weekends and summers together going to Cedar Point, Lake Erie, going to Eric Church concerts, and by spending time with our friends and family.
The time came for us to graduate high school and I wasn't sure what was going to happen. We'd been together for two and a half years at that point. People told us to not be too set on staying together especially since I decided to go to a college in Cleveland for fashion design. But we made it work. Seth would visit me on weekends (thankfully my dad lived close so we stayed with my dad on the weekends), we would FaceTime during the weeks and text throughout the day. I decided that fashion design was not for me and decided to change my major to marketing. I also decided that I didn't want to stay in Cleveland so after a semester of long distance, I decided to make the move back home to attend The University of Findlay.
At this point, Seth and I had talked about getting married and what our life would look like. I was only a freshman in college but I had a goal to graduate in 3 years instead of 4 so I wanted to start planning ahead. Being home was much easier to see each other and to communicate but between classes and working part-time, we didn't get to see each other all of the time.
In the summer of 2014, Seth and I broke up for 4 months. I was absolutely heartbroken. I spent a solid month in my room watching all 12 seasons of Grey's Anatomy that was on Netflix. This was one of the hardest things I went through but in all reality, it was what we needed in our relationship to break up our high school life to what would become our adult, married life. It also made me realize that I didn't want to do life without Seth. I knew that I needed him but I kept hoping he felt the same way. I would text him with no response back so just when I had given up all hope, I decided to text him once more.
On October 22, 2014 I texted Seth to check in on him and to see how things were going for him. He responded and asked if I wanted to meet for ice cream (he knows the way to my heart). Later that evening he picked me up for ice cream, we talked, we cried, we laughed and by the end of the night, we were back together. From that point on, we made a promise to never separate from each other again. Our relationship felt stronger then ever; we fought less, we didn't take our time together for granted, and we were more in love than ever.
The next summer of 2015, we brought back the idea of getting married. I would be graduating the next summer and wanted to know what was going to happen after graduation. Seth and I ended up looking at and booking our wedding venue for July 22, 2016 before we were engaged; HUGE shock to our parents. We knew we wanted to get married the following summer but Seth (in my opinion) was taking a long time to propose. We went to an Eric Church concert in August and I had hopes he would propose there but he didn't. BUT he finally did that on October 11, 2015 at the Findlay reservoir.
He asked me the night before if I wanted to go for a walk at the reservoir the next day since it was going to be a nice afternoon. I said sure, thinking nothing of it because Seth and I often went to the reservoir to walk around and talk about life. We started walking and I had a weird feeling. I said, "Are you going to propose?" to which he responded, "No, I don't have your ring yet". He did have my ring... it was in his pocket. We were just about finished walking around the small reservoir and all of my hopes of Seth proposing had gone away. Feeling a little let down, I said, "You're never going to propose to me" and then Seth said, "Well....." and I turned around and there he was, down on one knee holding a ring box that held the most gorgeous rose gold ring. He then asked me to marry him, and my answer was undoubtedly YES!!!
After we were engaged, we prepared for our wedding by booking our vendors, I prepared for graduation by finishing all of my classes, but everything came so fast. Before I knew it, I was graduated and our wedding day had arrived. Everyone says how fast your wedding day goes and you don't believe it until your wedding day is over. Everything went so fast. Our pictures, our ceremony, our dinner, our cake cutting, our first dance, but the day was The. Best. Day. Of. My. Life. I wish I could go back and relive the day over a million times. But the best part was I went into the day with a fiancee and I left with a husband, my husband. My same jacket wearing high school sweetheart (Seth's mom gifted us with the jacket that Seth wore every day as one of our wedding gifts).
In the last three years, our love story has only continued and my love for Seth has grown endlessly. Since we got married three years ago, we have moved into an apartment, moved out of an apartment, we bought our first house, we've adopted two dogs, Riley and Molly. As I said when I started, our 3 year anniversary is coming up, which seems unreal but it's also very exciting. In December of this year, we will be celebrating 9 years together.
This month, I will be sharing things about Seth and I's story that have helped us, formed us, and have changed us. I hope that you enjoyed our story and I hope that you take some time to reflect on your own story. Tell you spouse / loved one how much you love them and share some of your favorite memories from your special day today.