"Our Love Story Is My Favorite"

 This quote is on a plaque that my husband bought and put over top of our bed. Where did this Love Story begin? The year was 1996, in a small town in New Jersey. At 16yrs old, with a recently shaved head, I nervously boarded the school bus on the first day of school as "the new girl". As I got on the bus, I heard someone call out, "Hey, it's a new dude!" I knew this person was talking about me because I was the only one who had boarded the bus at that stop. I turned to face him and he said, "Oh shit, he's got tits!" And that was my first encounter with my (now) husband🤦🏻‍♀️

Obviously, I couldn't get away from him fast enough. We arrived at the school and went into the cafeteria to wait for the homeroom bell to ring. When it rang, after what seemed like ages, I headed to my homeroom...only to find that the boy from the bus was there too, in the back of the room. I decided to sit directly across from the teacher, at the very front of the class. I thought that surely he wouldn't sit at the front of the class. When the bell rang, the teacher called him by name and said, "You know where you're suppose to be." And with that, he came to the front and sat across from me, right next to the teacher. I assumed at the point he was trouble lol...

Sitting directly across from me, I didn't want to speak to him. I pulled out a notebook and started to write my best friend a letter to tell her about my summer so far (I had moved away). After a few minutes, he asked me who I was writing to, I told him. He asked me to write him a note, so I asked him his name and told him I would write him. He said he expected it the next time he saw me in the hallway. I wrote him and asked about the school, how long had he lived in the area, what kind of things was there to do around there for fun, etc... he wrote me back right away and we've been inseparable ever since.

25yrs and counting...