A Leap of Faith – How I Met my Husband

I meant to share the story of how my husband and I met when I posted about our five year wedding anniversary…but I forgot.  Whoops.  It was a busy couple of weeks.

I don’t want to wait until next year though, so here goes!

Are you a spontaneous person?  I am not.  At all.  Sometimes I wish I were, but I’m definitely more of a type-A, often overly rigid, plans everything type of person.  I sound so fun, right?

Because of this, the times I’ve taken a leap of faith and followed my gut, rather than analyzing everything and doing what I “should” do, really stand out to me.  There have been three: moving to DC for college without ever visiting, quitting my career in business and becoming a teacher, and dating my husband.

I met my husband when I was a freshman at Georgetown University.  I was having a great year.  I had met a wonderful group of friends, and was really enjoying experiencing a different part of the country.

I had dated some, but nothing too serious, and that was fine.  I was a freshman.

My best friend in college (still my best friend today!) is from Wisconsin.  Some of her friends from high school drove out to visit her for spring break.

My now husband, being the complete opposite of me, had no plans, did not even realize it was spring break, and so jumped in the car and came with them.  One of the many reasons I’m glad our personalities are so different 🙂

I met him at the dining hall – so romantic, I know.  I liked him right away.  I am pretty shy, but we wound up talking a lot that weekend.  We were always hanging out in a big group, but the two of us always wound up having great conversations.  One way that we are alike is that we are both major introverts.  This led to some deep conversations about what we wanted to be “when we grew up” and all the rest.  Plus, he was pretty cute 😉

He was super down to earth, which was so refreshing (Have you been to Georgetown?  It is beautiful, but down to earth, it is not….)

The weekend ended and I felt sad when he left, but he was basically a stranger.  It was just sad as in, I wished I had gotten to know him more.

We started talking over instant messenger and texting and eventually talking on the phone and became great friends that summer.

I wanted to go visit him that summer, but my Dad said no…shocking, I had only met the guy once and he lived across the country.  I would say no too.

School started and we still talked all of the time.  I saved my babysitting money and flew out to see him.  All of my guy friends had serious concerns about this and I don’t blame them!  It was an illogical thing to do.  My best friend did fly out with me, but she was going to Wisconsin for a family thing and we weren’t mostly together.  Also, his roommate was one of her best friends, so we at least knew he wasn’t a psycho!

Still, this was a theoretically stupid thing to do.  Yet, it was the best decision of my life.

We dated long distance for a little over two years and then he moved to DC.  We’ve been together ever since and he is my best friend and now such an amazing Dad.

I’m so glad that I didn’t let my often overly cautious mind get in the way of my happiness.  I’m so glad that I didnt’ listen to anyone saying it was a dumb thing to do or that long distance never works.  I’m so glad I listened to my heart, took a leap of faith, and made space to fall in love.

Here’s to taking risks and finding happiness!

Are you spontaneous?

Have you ever taken a big risk that paid off?

How did you meet your significant other if you have one?