Our Story, Part 1

Today, the majority of my friends from law school endured their first day of the bar examination. For those unfamiliar with this particular form of torture, just know that this is the test you have to take in order to become a lawyer, and it's killer. The amount of information you must know to pass this test fills hundreds of pages. How, you ask, are there still really dumb lawyers out there? Beats me. Apparently, they need a better test.

Someday, I will take the bar and become a lawyer like the rest of my class. But today is not that day. Instead, I am watching Summer sleep in her swing. My emotions consist of one part "Ha ha, suckas!" and one part envy.

Being a stay-at-home mom is so difficult for many reasons, but the one I'm having the hardest time with is not feeling like I'm contributing. My head knows that what I'm doing is important. I mean, somebody has to be home to be sure that when Summer wakes up, she'll get food and a diaper change and love. But it's so hard to know that we're living off student loans and I'm not bringing in any money.

To compensate, I try to do other good stuff. I clean. I cook. I take care of Summer. But that's not enough for me.

So right now, I'm writing this:



I'm writing our story. The story of how we met, fell in love, and got married. I feel like it's something that should be written down before we forget. Also, I feel like I owe it to the world to explain how it all happened so fast. Seriously, it was less than four months from the time of our first date to our wedding day.

So here is the first installment. It's not the craziest or most exciting story in the world; after all, we met in a BYU ward. But I hope it'll be something entertaining for when you're bored. And I hope it will keep me motivated to finish it.


****

“Okay, I’ll see you later.” I waved goodbye to Noelle and turned to leave the David O. McKay building. Everyone I knew who lived in my apartment complex on the south side of BYU campus went to church with me. Noelle , my beloved roommate, was my last chance to avoid walking home from church alone. And she had an appointment. Bummer.

So I walked out of the building all by myself, content to think about what I learned in church that day. I didn’t have much time to think, however, because soon a guy who was walking ahead of me with his friends turned around and asked, “What do you think?”

Confused, I replied “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I’m on the four month plan,” a member of the group said.

“The four month plan?”

“Yeah. I go to medical school in California in four months. My options will be limited up there. So I need to get married before I go.”

“That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard,” I exclaimed. Why, yes, I have always been a bit blunt. I blame my mother. “Being single is amazing! You get to have so much fun. You can flirt with whoever you want and do so many things with so many people!” I wanted so badly to show him the light and convince him to get his mind of this insane plan. I have no idea why it didn’t occur to me that he was joking.

“Yeah, but if I go to med school without getting married, I’ll have to lower my standards. There are so many good prospects here, but if I go there where there are fewer prospects, and I’ll get something less than I want. So, I better tie the knot in four months.”

I thought his plan and his argument were inane, but I was beginning to realize my last words may have been a bit harsh. So I empathized. “I see what you mean. If a guy in Georgia, where I’m from, were to ask me out, I might be really excited, but if the same guy were to ask me out here, I might say no.” That had actually happened once.

“So what would you say if Nathaniel asked you out?” asked the guy who had dragged me into this silly conversation in the first place.

“I don’t know who Nathaniel is.” I was annoyed. I could tell what he was doing and I didn’t like it.

He pointed to a guy in the group, who said, “Karl, stop it.”

What was I supposed to say? Nothing would be a bit awkward. Yes would be too forward, and besides, I hadn’t even gotten a good look at this guy’s face. No would hurt his feelings and might be a lie. I didn’t know how to answer that question.

“I don’t know how to answer that question.”

Nathaniel chuckled, his hands in his pockets and looking down. “That was the perfect way to answer that question.”

I smiled at him and continued walking. My awesome gold shoes with a three inch heel were hurting my feet.

Somehow, Nathaniel and I wound up walking back to the apartment complex together. He asked me questions about Georgia and I asked him where he was from. When I found out he was from Farmington, I was disappointed. “Typical Utah boy,” I thought, playing with the ball-shaped flowers we found on the ground.

When we got to the sidewalk where our two paths diverged, we stopped and talked a bit more. I sized him up. He had nice eyes and a good smile, but my three inch heels made him look short. Plus, this guy seemed interested in talking about Russian literature when he found out I had majored in English. Boring. I wasn’t interested.

“Well, I better go. I have got to get these shoes off.” He looked down at my feet and I saw a look of disapproval spread across his face.

“Yeah, you better go.”

“I’ll see you around,” I said as I turned to go. It bugged me that he disapproved of my awesome gold shoes.

And with that, I walked into my apartment and forgot about Nathaniel.