Eight years ago today, Billy and I started dating (officially). I feel like, on one hand, it was just yesterday, and on the other I feel like we've been together a lifetime. Funny how that works, right?
The past eight years have been a whirlwind....the time has seriously flown by. Back in 2004 (so long ago haha) we were in our junior year of high school, and now we're married and have two kids. We've experienced so many life changes together, which is truly a blessing (although it gets a little overwhelming when I think about it too much). We graduated high school, went off to college, got married, went through multiple family dramas, job loss, had two "unplanned" pregnancies, one traumatic birth and hospitalization, moved to a new city...all of those experiences we did together. We've made dreams together, and seen some of those come to fruition while others have been set aside for something else.
We've also changed a lot. When we started dating, Billy was what I would describe as a goofy-class clown type. He was always cracking jokes, making people laugh, and was very extroverted and self-confident. He could make friends with anyone, and was also pretty involved in high school sports. Me, on the other hand...definitely a shy, introverted nerd. I had VERY few friends outside of my classes, and even those were mostly through church youth group. I rarely talked to people I didn't know and never did anything spontaneous, and I was very self-conscious of everything I did. Basically, back then we were opposites. I'm still kind of surprised that we ended up together. Anyway, I would say our personalities have really blended now. Billy is more reserved than he used to be, and I'm more outgoing. I have become less nerdy (especially since I'm not in school anymore!) and Billy is the studious one now. I would also say that Billy has helped me overcome some of my shy tendencies. Because of his encouragement, I am now more outspoken and less of a people pleaser (although I still really struggle with that). He has helped me become more assertive and confident, when before I was VERY passive and lacked self confidence. Obviously a lot of prayer went into those things, too, but Billy really helped motivate me to work past those issues and I think I'm a better person for it.
I am so grateful that eight years ago I had a momentary burst of spontaneity and showed Billy that I was interested in him. I had just gotten out of another relationship, and one Saturday night I just decided to go to the movie theater...by myself. Who does that? I probably seemed kinda lame going alone, but I had an ulterior motive, because Billy just happened to work at the movie theater. So I went, on the off chance that he was working (which he was!) and got in his line at the concession stand (even though I didn't need to buy any food, since I snuck in some juice and cookies from my Nana's house haha). Anyway, I talked to him for a few minutes (which was out of character for me anyway, since I was so shy) and went on to my movie. After the movie was over, I saw Billy as I was leaving and hollered bye to him and walked out. Billy says that he knew I was interested in him because I made the effort to say goodbye to him on my way out. How random is that? And a couple weeks after that (and after we had our first couple of dates) we decided to be together. And the rest is history...
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