Let me start a few months before I met him because this does play a part in the story. It was towards the end of the fall semester 2005. The year's been good as far as school and work were concerned, but not as good as I wanted, especially in the "boys department". The year before, I dated Aric for a few weeks but apparently the impact had been greater than I realized. After stopping seeing each other I was left with a broken heart and a fear of trying. I didn't trust that I had anything to offer to any guy or that anyone would ever try to get close to me again. With that in mind, I heard a lot of talk at BYU about a challenge that the President of the Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, Gordon B. Hinckley made to all the members. He promised that if one would read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year, he/she will receive the blessing of the Spirit and many other blessings. What I felt that I wanted and needed the most was to find a nice young man who would fall in love with me and who I would fall in love with, eventually getting married. So, with only a few weeks left until the end of the year I started listening to the book whenever I wasn't doing anything else. After putting quite a few hours into this activity I finally finished the book on December 31st at 10:06PM. I knew that I did my part. Now I could just wait for the promise to come true. And it started working... I started going out with different guys quite a bit. I was being liked by guys and I liked some back but not to the extent of possibly getting married. The winter semester kept me really busy. I applied and got accepted to go to France (Dunkirk) on an internship, I was doing well in school and I liked my computer lab assistant job. Everything was perfect, except I still hadn't met 'the one'. I eventually decided not to go to France because I needed to work full time during the summer so by the beginning of spring term I was being very busy working 40 hours a week. I was also getting tired and bored with doing only one thing all the time so I decided to look up folk dance classes. If I took one I could practice more, learn new stuff and have some fun. The only class that fit my work schedule was Beginning Irish taught by Jeanette Geslison. It was a class I had already attended before but since it was taught by someone different and I really didn't have any other class to choose from I decided to show up one day, about a week into the term. The students were already testing but I got to dance even though I couldn't remember everything very well. That day in May was the first time I met and danced with David. There were a couple more guys in the class but none as attractive as he was. Plus, I wasn't there for the guys. Jeanette said that she would approve me to stay in the class so I stayed and had fun. I would dance with David every class period and we would walk home together after class. I started to like him and I could tell that he liked me a little bit too. I remember that one time I invited him to the Krishna Temple festival and another time we went together to an Irish contest in Salt Lake. We had fun together and eventually our walks home became longer and longer and we also went on walks that were not after the Irish class; dates, sort of... We would talk about our life, our experiences, the things we like and the things we'd like to do.
The first time David held my hand was one day after Irish class. He was walking me to work, as he's done other times before and as we walked out of the RB, going up a long flight of stairs, he grabbed my hand. Neither one of us said anything about it. It was a little awkward and I was pretty shy and probably red in my cheeks but I didn't pull my hand away. After that, holding hands became natural and something we did all the time. Others started to notice us holding hands and my roommates kept asking me if he's kissed me already.
The kissing came a few weeks later. We went to Salt Lake and it was evening and we were walking at the Gateway. And I don't really remember why we went to Salt Lake or what we did. All I remember is that we sat on some rocks by a little river at the Gateway and he took my face and kissed me on the mouth. I was sooooooooo nervous, I was shaking really bad. The kiss was pretty short but I loved it. I was so happy and I knew then that we might end up married. I think this happened in July but I don't remember if it was before or after Independence Day. We spent Independence Day with David's family who were visiting Utah from Japan for the summer. I remember being nervous to meet them but it turned out fine. Unfortunately the only other time I met them that summer was when we took them to the airport. Oh, there's one detail that I just remembered about the kissing episode. One of my roommates was friends with one of David's roommates and would visit their apartment all the time. She knew that David and I were dating and asked me several times if he'd kissed me. I would keep telling her that he hadn't but that I really wanted him to. So, one day soon after we'd actually kissed, she asked me again and I triumphantly said 'yes'! :) To that she was like: 'Finally he did it. I told him that he should do it but he kept putting it aside saying that he wasn't sure if it was too early to do it." I was like: 'What?' We laughed and I was so thankful that she talked to David even though I felt a little embarrassed too.
The summer was almost ending and a new semester was going to start soon. Another thing to remember happened at the beginning of October. It was Homecoming night and we went up on a hill by the Y Mountain to watch the fireworks. On the way to the car we decided to just walk around a little longer and look at the pretty houses that were up there since it was a very nice evening. It was during that walk that I knew that we were going to get married. I had no doubt in my mind and I kind of said it out loud at one point as we were looking at some house and I said something like 'I'd like OUR house to be...'. I quickly said something else hoping that he didn't get what I said the first time and I was lucky, as he didn't seem to have noticed and kept talking.
The semester was progressing. David and I had only one class together, clogging. Not my favorite but one of his. And he was doing pretty good in it too. I was doing allright but seeing him succeed so easily started getting to me and soon enough I became jealous of him. I couldn't stand it and would frequently get upset and even cry when he would tell me how do dance better and I didn't want to be around him in that class anymore. I eventually started getting upset and thinking over everything he did or said and I started considering him as a competitor. I loved dancing but he was the one succeeding and I was being slow at making progress. Plus, he was always such a show off! I decided I didn't want us to see each other for a while. I didn't know for how long or if I ever wanted to see him again but I stopped talking to him completely. I wasn't happy and I would watch him when he wasn't looking but I was scared and afraid. Everything was happening so quickly and I felt threatened and unimportant. After one of the happiest summers of my life I was deciding if I was ever going to see David again. All the letters and messages he sent apologizing and asking me what he could do to make things better, made me even more sad and confused. All this went on for about a month, until one night when, even though I was really tired, I decided to say hi to Chris Chan, one of my friends and a guy who liked me for sometime. He knew about David and he asked me why I was so determined to end the relationship. I realized right then that I was wrong; that my reasons were, most of them wrong and that I loved him and wanted to be with him. At the end of our next clogging class I went and sat across from David. Rosie, one of our classmates gave him an invitation to some activity and when she left I suggested if he would maybe like to take someone on a date for the event. We left together and decided to meet again later that evening. He came and we talked outside, in front of my apartment at the Avenues for hours but what made that evening perfect was our make-up kiss and hug. I wanted so desperately to kiss him and it was one of our most passionate kisses we've ever had. Of course that we got back together but even now, almost four years after David still reminds me of how much sadness I inflicted upon him and how he would cry himself to sleep many nights. He said that he knew that getting back together was the right thing to do but it wasn't easy for him to just forgive and forget.
After this incident things started looking much better and in November we started looking for engagement rings. Didn't buy one, as we wanted it to be a surprise for me but he still needed to know what I like and what my size was. At the end of December we went to Romania together. It was so much fun to spend Christmas with my family and have David there with us too. Little did I know that I was going to have the happiest Christmas of my life. After wrapping up the gifts David told everyone, except my dad to leave the living room. We left and a few minutes after my dad came out and told me to go in. I was so nervous. I went in and we sat on the couch and David asked me in Romanian: "Vrei sa te casatoresti cu mine?" - meaning 'will you marry me". I said "yes" and he slipped a beautiful ring on my finger. I was so happy. We kissed and then told everyone. My parents already knew, as he asked for their permission first, in Romanian still. Everything went well after that and we got married on March 3rd, 2007 at the Manti, UT temple. Our marriage wasn't easy for the first couple of years but I'll leave that for another story. Suffices to say that I love David with all my heart and I never regret the decision to marry him. He is the one man in this world who makes me happy and loves me. I know that we'll be together for the rest of our lives and that we are a 'match made in heaven'. :) I love you David, with all my heart!
