I was 19 years old when I first saw her. I never knew that my world would be turned upside down by this chance meeting. I had prayed and prayed for clarity and discernment for which college I should choose. I had three places in mind, and one day I woke up and God had answered my prayer, and I knew I was supposed to go to Oklahoma Christian University in Edmond. Little did I know that choosing this college was going to lead me to run into her for the first time.
It was my first day of college algebra and I was excited. I really enjoyed math and I had taken higher level math courses in high-school so I was feeling pretty confident. I walked in and looked for a seat where I could focus and not be distracted, again, because I liked math and was a fairly good student. Then, all of a sudden, everything changed. There was this girl with long brown hair and blue eyes with a green t-shirt on, blue jeans and Birkenstock sandals on sitting at the end of one row. I had a whole bunch of thoughts run through my head all of a sudden. What if I sat by myself and then someone else sat next to her? What if I wanted to sit next to her on day two, but we had a seating chart or she thought I was weird because I hadn’t sat in that seat next to her on day one? I walked down the row behind her all the way to the opposite end of the table she was at by the wall. I panicked. What should I do? Then I had 2 seconds of courage come over me so I did an about-face and came back down to an open chair next to her and asked, “Is anyone sitting here, and what’s your name?” She introduced herself and somehow it came out that she thought she wasn’t good at math and was a little apprehensive about this class. Because I was feeling confident about this class and my skills with math I offered to help her if she needed it.
We ended up studying a couple times that year together and I helped answer some questions for her. I would walk her back to her dorm room after class each day and we would talk. At the end of that semester she ended up getting a higher grade than me by two points and it was then that I knew I really liked her.
My world turned upside down at the end of that semester though when I found out she was transferring to another college 2 hours away to play basketball. There was a pit in my stomach as I knew this was potentially going to change any hope of anything happening with this girl. She was really cute, she was smart, athletic and she was moving 2 hours away. I just knew I was going to lose any chance with her. She had many suitors over the next year or two, but surprisingly we stayed in touch and when she would come home for the summer or Christmas break we would connect over dinner or coffee. Then one summer I moved away to Colorado to ride my bike and work. When I moved back home after that summer to go back to school we reconnected once more and then it was game over. I fell hard for her. I went into a full on full court press. I pursued her hard from that point on. I made it clear that I really liked her and I did just about anything I could to make sure I got her attention.
I was going into my junior year at this time and she was going into her first senior year. She ended up getting granted a second senior year as she had eligibility to continue playing basketball for another year. She got her MBA during her second year of eligibility as I was in my senior year finishing my BS in Biology. We had a long distance relationship during this time. We liked each other a lot, but she was pretty careful to let me all in or be anything serious as she was focused on basketball and school. When she graduated with her MBA she finally moved home and landed a job with Chesapeake Energy. I started working at a gym and was personal training. After about a year of this, she went back to school to get a Masters of Dietetics. At this point, I was still pursing her and trying to impress her and I knew that if I didn’t do anything with my life I was not going to be smart enough to keep up with her so I decided to go back to school and get my Masters of Exercise Science Wellness Management. I addition to pursing my masters, I was personal training, teaching group fitness classes, and I had started my own training business on the side.
We did this for a while. I started a business and was still training and teaching classes. She got a job in the dietetics world and then started working as a dietitian for an app company. Long story short, I ended up stepping on staff as a Pastor of LifeGroups/LifeMissions at Life.Church. It was then that I had a lot of accountability, wise council, and leadership in my life. My interest and pursuits of this girl quickly changed to I like this girl to I want to be committed to this girl and I want to do this the right way.
In May of 2015, I asked her if she would marry me and she said yes. A little less than 4 months later we got married in my parents backyard with some of those closest to us at the time. I married her almost ten years to the date of the first time I saw her walking into that College Algebra class. (I don‘t recommend waiting 10 years to marry, but it’s our story and I learned a lot during that time. If I could redo it, I would definitely do some things differently). That decade was some of the best and some of the hardest years, but I knew I loved her and I wanted to do a lot more decades of life with her.
I sit here writing this post almost 6 years into marriage. My life has radically been changed by this sweet girl I feel in love with all those years ago. Today, we are two weeks away from expecting our first little homie. I never would have imagined the girl who I would walk back to her dorm after class is the girl I would get to marry and have a little guy together. I’m in awe and totally blown away.
I write this to share my story, but if there is a takeaway it is that you never know what one chance meeting could turn into. It could turn into love and marriage. It could turn into having friends and community. It could turn into connections that lead you to your purpose here in this life. One chance encounter could turn into leaving a legacy that’s greater than yourself.
