Smiles

Corey and I met in high school. I knew more about him than he did about me because he was outgoing and pretty popular; I was quiet and had a small circle of friends. Throughout high school we happened to be in several classes together, one of which was our AVID class. Every year, AVID has a junior /senior trip in which students go to northern California for 5 days to tour college campuses. It was our junior year and we both went. Being all in a bus for about 6 hours, it was impossible not to get to know everyone else. Corey and I started talking through mutual friends. It was on that trip that we started to talk a lot but everything went back to normal once the trip ended. *What he didn't know was that during that trip, I started to like him but was too shy to show it, let alone tell him.* Fast forward to senior year. We both happened to be in the same Statistics class. It was assigned seating and I happened to be seated right in front of him but since we hadn't talked for so long, I didn't think anything of it. As the year began, we were nothing more than just classmates. Once in a while he would ask me something in class or text me to ask what the homework was. It was about a month into the school year when he started to walk with me after class to talk about the stories the teacher had told, about how bad the test had been, or to compare grades. Soon it turned into playing tic-tac-toe during class and he would reach over to write notes or draw things on my notebook while I took notes. Our conversations after class, on our way to lunch, were no longer just about statistics. We started texting a lot and our in-class games about how boring the lecture was turned into flirting. It became a weekly thing to get called out by the teacher for flirting. We really didn't mean to, but we didn't even notice it.  Our first date resulted from a bet we made regarding grades but it wasn't meant to be a date at first. I won so he took me out for lunch. Our second date was a double date with my best friend whose boyfriend happened to be his best friend. It was a really nice date and it was the first time we held hands. On Novemeber 24, 2009, he asked me to be his girlfriend after an amazing date he had planned. I said yes and he became my first boyfriend. After the date, he said he had to stop by his house to check in with his parents and convinced me to "say hi" so I wouldn't look rude. I unwillingly agreed and when I walked in, I was surprised to find out that they were having Thanksgiving dinner a few days early because the grandparents were going out of town. I was obviously not happy to have been deceived like that and meeting his family so soon but I let it go.  After that there was A LOT of high school drama because my friends were not used to me having a boyfriend. My friends thought I was too good for him and his friends thought I would end up changing him so they teamed up to break us up. Childish, I know. It came to the point where we could only trust each other and rely on each other because our "friends" were relentless. It went on like that until graduation but we survived and got through it. Before he and I had started dating, we had already decided on the college we would attend and it happened to be the same one so that worked for us.  Marriage has always been very important to me and we started to talk about it serioiusly since the start of 2011 but we knew we weren't ready for what marriage consisted of. Over summer of 2011 he worked two jobs to save money and our relationship continued as normal. By the end of summer, he had saved double the amount we needed for our wedding, which solved the financial issue. He proposed on Christmas Day 2011 and it was very special for the both of us. Every Christmas for us has been special: our first kiss happened to be on our first Christmas together, and I told him I loved him for the first time on our second Christmas together though we both already knew that. Now on our third Christmas we get engaged! Our date is set for September 14, 2013 and we are both very excited! He is my best friend and I love him more than he knows.  ***A fun fact we like to share is that his grandparents were the first graduating class at the same high school we went to. They started dating in high school, got married, and have been together for 53 years now! His parents also met at the same high school, started dating, got married, and have been together for 22 years! His older brother met his fiancee at the same high school; they have been dating for 4 years and are engaged to get married soon! Corey and I are also going to be part of this wonderful tradition of high school sweethearts. (Mind you, I didn't know about this until about a year and a half of dating him.)***