boy meets girl

Photo by: Alyssa Shrock Photography

Jared Ross was a looker. A young 17 year old with piercing blue eyes, hair down to his shoulders, and a love for the Lord. Him being a junior in high school, and me as a little old freshman, of course I was bound to have a crush on him. But first, lets rewind about 4 years. I was a sixth grader and in my opinion, awkwardly awesome. Glasses adorned my face while my growth spurt hadn't quite hit to spread out the baby fat that I still had. This was the first time I took notice of Jared. While at Sunday School at a church I had never been to before, I saw what I thought manliest guy I had ever seen over in the corner. He sure caught my attention; however, I did not catch his. Years went by, and the crush slowly faded into the back of my mind. Now, lets go back to the time of me being a freshman and him a junior. Every year, our school went on a retreat to a camp to grow better relationships with our friends and the Lord. The first night of the retreat we had a worship session. He was the drummer that held the beat together and stole the crowd with his talent, but that night I think he also stole my heart. His outword show of his love for God mesmerized me and I immediately wanted to know more about him. I told all of my friends that night that I thought he was so cute. Well, I may have used words like hot, but that's irrelevant. The next day, when my mom picked me up from school after we had returned from the retreat, I was so excited to tell her all about this guy I was interested in. I saw him walking a far distance away and pointed and said, "Look mom, that's him! That's the guy I was telling you about!" All she saw was the back of him, him and all his glory, and the long hair. I'm sure she didn't think anything else about it. From then on I was determined I would talk to him. Remember Myspace? That out-of-date social networking site that no one uses anymore? Well, that is the official place I worked up the courage to talk to my man in sight for the first time. Brave I know. I knew Jared was a soccer player, and so was one of my friends that I wanted to invite to my fifteenth birthday party. However, because of an out of town tournament, that Jared was also a part of,  my friend would not be able to make it. Being the sly fourteen year old I thought I was, I wrote to Jared in a comment on Myspace, "I can't believe you are taking away my friend from me on my birthday." We instantly started talking. I don't think I had ever been more excited about anything. That was until a few days later, I was getting ready to shower and I receive a text on my phone saying. "Hey Amy, this is Jared." That was it. That was all it took to get me screaming and jumping up and down by myself in my bathroom. Typical fourteen year old right? Well, I don't care. I would probably do the same thing again if it happened today. I literally was jumping out of my skin when he asked me out on a date the next week. We could have gone anywhere and I would have been happy. I just couldnt wait to learn more about him. I immediately called my best friend and told her about it; I wanted to tell the whole world actually. A few days later, I saw him walking, but almost didn't recognize him. He had cut his locks to a much more mature look, and oh boy did that get my heart fluttering that much more. Not only was Jared a Christian, but a star athlete, talented, and handsome. Does it get any better than that? At the time, he was going to a youth group at a local church, and coincidentally, I was already planning on going to the same one on that exact week with some friends. What is a more perfect time for my parents the meet the guy I was going on my first real date on then after youth group? I was so excited for them to meet him because I knew they would like who he was as much as I did. Of course, everything went perfectly. My mom's typical reaction was, "He's so cute." My dad's reaction was, "He had a good handshake." Apparently, that is a big thing in a guy's mind. It was set. Friday could not come fast enough. Besides attending his soccer game that night, I was going to go on my first official date with the boy I had an enormous crush on. To say it simply, it was literally perfect. He was a perfect gentleman and even though we did not pay one once of attention to the movie we paid to watch, we felt more comfortable with each other than anyone else we had ever been around. I could completely be myself around him after five minutes; that was something I had never experienced before. After that night I knew I had found a keeper. A guy who was everything I wanted whether I knew it then or not. Two days later, we were boyfriend and girlfriend. A fifteen year old and a seventeen year old have the odds stacked against them, and we knew that. But, we also knew we had something that could beat those odds: eachother.

Girl sees boy.

Girl thinks boy is cute.

Girl talks to boy.

Boy notices girl.

Boy and girl go on date.

Boy and girl become boyfriend and girlfriend.

Boy and girl have much more to tell about their future:

together.