A Legit V-Day Love Story [Part 2]

It’s probably ridiculous how quickly everything has happened. I used to be one of those people who made fun of couples who claimed they were madly in love after just 1 or 2 months! …Now I’m ½ of one of those couples!

The past couple of weeks have been a total whirlwind for me, mentally & emotionally so I may have some of the following events a little mixed up but I’ll try my best to keep things straight.

A couple nights after we’d agreed to become an official couple, Jared asked me if I could maybe pray about us. So, I did – I started to pray about whether Jared and I should be together and even fasted and prayed about it that Sunday.

I believe it was the Saturday of the week that Jared and I became an official couple that we were planning on going out, however, I got a little overwhelmed with things and plans fell through so the Saturday date was skipped. However, Jared asked me if he could go to church with me that Sunday instead. I was hesitant (I’ve never really felt comfortable sitting next to guys in church and especially not ones I was dating) but I said yes. I feel like I can always tell Jared anything, and so I went ahead and told him that I did feel a little nervous about Sunday because of my discomfort with the idea of sitting next to a guy. He, being the super amazing guy that he is, told me that if at any point I didn’t feel comfortable to let him know and that he would accommodate (he’s super sweet to make sure that I’m comfortable with different situations, and if I’m not he’ll do his best to either try and fix things or help me to feel okay with things). Luckily – I felt totally fine sitting next to him, I even let him put his arm around me (although, honestly, I was a little distracted by my prayers that Heavenly Father would let me know if it was okay for me to date Jared).

In the middle of sacrament, with Jared’s arm around me, I got a feeling that told me to be patient a little longer (not the yes/no answer I was hoping for. Although, in hindsight, I think I now understand what Heavenly Father was referring to in terms of me being patient a little longer).

That evening, after church, Jared and I played chess and had dinner together (I tossed together some crock pot ribs, a broccoli/grape salad and cooked up a bag of sweet potato fries – recipes to come!) It was fun to spend time together like that, we talked about things like the military and what not, and after dinner – he totally just got up, took off his watch, rolled up his sleeves and took care of the dishes (he didn’t even do that thing that guys sometimes do, where they point out that they’re helping with the dishes, like it’s a big deal or something – it totally blew my mind. Seriously girls, how cute is it to see a guy doing dishes!? So cute!)

Afterwards, he and I sat on the floor for a few hours talking together. I told him that I’d gotten an answer from Heavenly Father about us and that I apparently needed to be patient in regards to our relationship, but I couldn’t think of any reason why he and I shouldn’t date. Jared told me, “No…babe, you were asking the wrong question,” apparently – Jared had the end goal of our relationship in mind when he’d asked me to pray about things! As he and I talked, I started to realize that he felt much more strongly about us than I did. Every logical, sensible bit of me snagged my emotions and ran away with them and I started to freak out. We’d only been dating for 2 weeks at this point, I didn’t feel like I knew anything about him, it was insane and completely ridiculous! In my mind, it was like this complete stranger was all but proposing that I spend eternity with him!

I pulled away and began sputtering out every argument I could think of (though, if I recall correctly, only parts and pieces of what I was thinking managed to coherently make their way out of my mouth – I’m pretty sure I said “it’s WAY WAY WAY WAY too soon” multiple times if not a variety of other things). Now this is where Jared gained a ton of points in his favor. I could tell he was kind of shocked at my response and probably felt really rejected but instead of arguing with me or getting upset, he immediately responded by hugging me and trying to calm me down (he’s incredibly sweet like that…and I’m also pretty sure part of him was worried that my roommate/cousin would come into the living room wondering why I was suddenly freaking out like that lol) He told me he was sorry that he’d upset me, that he understood how I felt, that we could take all the time we needed to see how things go between us, and that he wouldn’t bring it up again until I felt I was ready to discuss it. One of my favorite things about him is his ability to calm me down (an ability that requires ridiculous amounts of patience).

I don’t really remember the rest of the evening after that (my mind was a little preoccupied with thoughts like, “He’s CRAZY! He wants to marry me!? What is WRONG with him!?”); we mostly just talked about random things, continuing to get to know each other.

Seeing as how he and I are still together, obviously I decided to stick things out and see where they go with him.

So far, he’s proven to be the most amazing guy I’ve ever dated. My past boyfriends didn’t exactly set the bar very high as far as expectations go and Jared knows that. However, instead of only doing the minimum he continually works to set the bar higher and higher (he once told me that even if our relationship doesn’t work out, he wants me to know how it feels to be valued and treated with the utmost respect and with absolute kindness so that I won’t date any more jerks who don’t treat me well). Jared is an absolute gentleman, and works hard to keep me happy. He’s caring and affectionate; he’s intelligent and fun, he’s laid back and patient; he sets a good spiritual example for me; and he’s got my back, no matter what.

I’d say he’s like a Disney Prince…but those guys are SO 2 Dimensional; Jared is better, than a Disney prince. All of the implied Prince-ly characteristics that every girl hopes to find in a guy and he’s MUCH more interesting!

To my friends hoping for a more Jane Austen comparison – No…he’s definitely not Mr. Darcy (and honestly, Mr. Darcy kinda struck me as being a little too…high society for my liking – sophistication is sexy, but you know Mr. Darcy [in modern times] probably wouldn’t know a darn thing about fixing a car, he’d be too busy taking the ballroom classes at BYU! :P)

Needless to say, I’ve come to truly adore, respect, and love him! He makes me SO incredibly happy! (Jared, I mean...not Mr. Darcy :p)

More to come….eventually. But until then – Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! 

(Sorry this was all text and no photos...I'm terrible at documenting my life! :P)