The Story of How We Met

By Jada Parrish

Posted: 09/22/17

Category: Personal

One of my favorite things to ask all of our couples is "How did you meet?" I love hearing the stories of how the universe brought them together. But I very rarely share mine and David's love story with anyone. This Thursday is our 4 year wedding anniversary and it has me feeling extra sappy and nostalgic, so I'm going to take all of you on a trip down memory lane with me :)

David and I went to the same high school. He was a junior and I was a freshmen, but we both were involved with theater. David was the go-to backstage theater dude who built the sets, did the lighting, and was clearly the theater director's favorite. I was 14 with braces and completely intimidated of him. He had tattoos, smoked cigarettes, and was wayyyyyy cooler than me. 

Theater was a pretty tight knit group of people so eventually we loosely got to know each other. David was always friendly to me, and we'd even chat on AIM (HA!).

Well he graduated, I grew up, our lives went different directions but every now and then he'd pop back into my life. When I look back at it, some of our facebook messages were definitely on the flirty side so maybe there was always something there and we just couldn't see it yet.

But fast forward 6 years to a cold night in the middle of my Christmas break. My friend Victoria and I went to 3 Monkeys to meet up with her older sister who just so happened to be one of David's best friends. The table they were sitting at was super packed. Victoria went and sat next to her sister, but there wasn't enough room for me....so I sat down next to David. We started talking and really hit it off. I remember texting him that night and saying "I just wanted to make sure you had my number." (I'm embarrassing ).

Well a few days passed with radio silence, and then I got a text message from David asking if I wanted to go out to dinner with him. I FREAKED out. I'd never really gone out on a "date" before. And in 1 week I was going to leave to study abroad in Spain for the semester. I was so nervous and figured nothing would happen because I was going to be leaving so soon, but I said yes anyways.

We went to Bellytimber for our first date. My heart was racing, I didn't know what to say, but  I really liked being around him. By the end of the date, I knew I really liked him. He told me he was meeting up with some of his friends after, and I was secretly hoping he'd ask if I wanted to come too...but he didn't. I thought I'd blown it. We went our separate ways....and of course me being me, I texted David saying, "Thanks for tonight, I had so much fun!" and once again, radio silence. But I was about to leave for spain in just a few days, so I kind of just wrote things off.

Well 3 days later he asked me out on a second date (YAY!!). We went and had drinks at Capital Ale House with some of his friends...and afterwards we had our first kiss. And that date was followed by a third and fourth....and then I left for Spain. 

I was pretty much in love with David after our second date. I could not stop thinking about him. I did not want to leave. I was so worried that was going to be the end of things and knew there was no way we could make a long distance relationship work because we weren't even in a relationship! We were just getting to know each other. Everything was so new. 

[photos from one of our very first dates]

I left for Spain the day of David's 23rd birthday. When I had boarded the airplane, I tweeted at my best friends saying I was going to miss all of them, and I included David in that tweet. I had no idea that he liked me as much as I liked him, but I later found out that tweet gave him hope that things could continue with us.

The entire 4 months I was in Spain we emailed, facebook messaged, and texted non-stop. We had a 6 hour time difference between us, so I'd stay up all night talking him. We got to know each other really well during that time. I still wasn't totally sure how serious David was about me because we'd only gone on 4 dates before I took off and adventured halfway across the word, but all of that changed on Valentine's Day.

For Valentine's Day, David mailed me a package. Inside was the cutest card, a film camera, and a coloring book. Inside the coloring book he had colored half of one page and wrote a note saying "I started, now you finish." My heart melted. I was so head over heels for this boy. 

Well, I came home from Spain in May and the rest was history. We were pretty much inseparable after that. It still amazes me how deeply and how fast I fell in love with him. LOVE IS PRETTY FREAKING AMAZING.