Our Relationship - By Carlee

Our Relationship.

It was a Sunday evening at one of New Life’s New Life Team Meetings(which is where a specific part of campus gets together for ice breakers, team builders, worship, short teachings, etc). I noticed Ryan out of the corner of my eye. The thing that caught my attention at first was not necessarily him; it was more the words that were written in Sharpie on his hand. I wish I remembered the exact phrase, but it was something along the lines of “Lord, Find Me” with an X (I thought it was sort of like an X marks the spot on a treasure map). I had never dated someone who had God at the center of their life, and I think there was a slight inward tug that it was something that I wanted, something that I needed. Anyway, back to the story, Ryan liked one of the girls that lived across the hall from me in the dorms, so I would see him every once in a while when he would go over there to try and hit on her. I didn’t make any sort of move, other than making him a sign with a BIG smiley face on it and put it on his door (he seemed down and I wanted to try to cheer him up). At the beginning of my freshman year I had come out of a long term relationship and I think I was nervous of getting rejected and since I knew he liked someone else I didn’t want to put myself out there to be hurt again. I remember walking home from Stats 350 with Seema, one of my girlfriends, towards the end of our freshman year and telling her that I thought I could really like Ryan and that I was so excited because we would both be going down to Orlando with New Life for Leadership Training for the summer. She encouraged me to get to know him and to really let him know how I was feeling, if there was anything there. I went down to LT not really knowing anyone. There were 7 of us that came from the part of campus that I lived in, which was The Hill, and that meant that the seven of us were together a lot. It just so happened that Ryan was part of that seven, lucky for me :). Four of us ended up having to work at Universal, which meant that we were car pooling together daily. Not only were we able to get to know each other at all of our group functions, but we were able to bond over our horrific Universal experiences and we could just all hang out on the rides to and from work (the traffic was pretty bad, so we would sit in jams for an hour a day at least). Ryan and I became close and I knew that I liked him as more than a friend. After LT there was still a month or so before going back up to Ann Arbor and I kept in touch with both the girls from LT and Ryan. The girls, Vanessa, Jenni, Michelle, and I would have weekly phone conversations about the books we were reading together, but would normally end up talking about random life stuff. I remember telling them that I had liked Ryan, and I actually got a bit of resistance. After grilling me for a little bit, I remember telling them that I could really see myself with him, I could see myself marrying him, and that he is someone that I wanted in my life for the rest of my life. Ryan didn’t official ask me to be his girlfriend until we got back to school that next fall. We started dating September 1st, 2003 and it has been amazing. I am not saying that we haven’t had our ups and downs, because we definitely have, but honestly when I look back over the four plus years we have spent together as girlfriend and boyfriend I am overwhelmed by the loving, exciting, adventurous times we have shared.

I can't wait for the great adventure that lays ahead of us!!