Charlie and I met in August. I was still on a "Boy Break." I had made a pack between me and God that I would not date for year. It was time I figure out who I was without a boy influencing my decisions. We were both graduate assistants. We had to attend a seminar about how to teach undergraduates and then practice giving a lecture to each other before they let us go and teach real students. He says he saw me sitting outside a classroom getting ready to go in and do my practice lecture. He remembers every detail down to what I was wearing that day. I however, only remember being completely annoyed by this boy who kept trying to make small talk. After the seminar was over he asked me where I was going and I said back to my office. He wanted to know where my office was and when I told him in the exercise phys dept. he said Oh me too, I guess I'll see you there. I however did not believe him because I thought I knew everyone in my dept, but obviously I had not met the new boy yet. I was sitting in my office telling my two office mates the story about meeting this crazy guy who thought we would be working together, when before I got done with the story he shows up and is peaking his head into our office. He says, "see I told you, I'm just right down the hall from you." I was very rude and tried not to pay too much attention when he introduced himself to my office mates and he finally left. They all laughed and immediately picked up on what I was trying to deny that he was totally into me. No matter how rude I was, he came by every day. My office mates would giggle every time he came by. I would try to sneak out before he could see me but some how he would always catch up with me on my bike ride home. He would ride several blocks out of the way just to talk. One day he finally asked me out and of course I said no. I did finally come around to enjoying his company and wanting to hang out, however I was still on my "boy break." I told him I could not go out with him until after October when my "boy break" was over. He asked me almost every day if I would change my mind. We became very close friends over the next couple of months but so did everyone in our dept. We all hung out together. I would never hang out alone with him. Finally, October came and I remember him asking me if my boy break was over and could we finally go out on a date. I agreed to go out however was very clear that I was not ready to get into anything serious. I remember we went to spaghetti warehouse and then watched a movie. We ended up spending more and more time together and had a blast but I could tell he was more into me than I was into him. So over Thanksgiving I broke his heart, I had to break it off because I didn't want to hurt him. It broke my heart too because I knew how much he cared for me and I knew it was going to hurt him. We so called "took a break" but continued hanging out just not as much alone. Over Christmas break I had learned that a tumor we had been watching on my thyroid kept growing. I had it removed and learned it was cancer. I had to go back for another surgery. Charlie came down to be with me during this time. He sat by side during recovery. Patti Abbott tells a story about when she first met Charlie she knew that he was in love. She says he sat on the end of the couch while I was totally zonked out and would rub my feet and just sit with me. My recovery time was much longer than we thought because the tumor was cancer so it was in question if I would be able to return to school. Charlie had worked it out with my professor to teach all of my classes. He and another friend also input all my data from my research project so all I had to do when I got back was run the stats and write the paper. I was able to return to school Valentines day week. He was at my house when I came home. He had cleaned and made sure everything was perfect for my arrival. I had missed a month a school and realized I missed a month of him. He maintained all my classes and helped me catch up on all my school work so that graduation would not be delayed. It was then when I realized how much he really did care for me, that his love was real. One of Charlie's great characteristics, and also something that can drive me nuts, is that he is always persistent and pursued me every day. That summer I graduated and he left to go coach baseball. I had promised I would take a trip to go see him. One of my best-friends girlfriends from college was also living not very far from where he was coaching. I will never forget when I stepped off the plane and saw his face I finally realized what he knew this whole time. He would be the man I would marry. So that is the story of how we met. The two key words though are persistence and pursue. My year of "boy break" I was doing several bible studies. Two of the key things that I got out of my year of single hood is that God will always pursue me no matter what mistakes I make or how far I try to push. That He will always be persistent in his pursual for me. Charlie mimicked that and was his aide in winning over his bride.
No comments:
Post a Comment