The story of how Jason and I officially met kicked off in Part 1. Jason was the friendly freshman guy and I felt like a sophisticated junior in college, too old for his kind. However, I talked his Facebook with my roomate to discover that he wasn’t a freshman. That peaked my interest. It’s funny how a minor age gap in college seemed to matter at the time.

During my research, I realized that Jason was actually older than me, he was in the military, worked out and seemed to be close to his family. Shortly after my social media stalking, I remembered that I had Jason’s number from the group texts he sent out. During fall break, I was feeling adventurous and text him the word with a smiley face, “Hey :)”. From my perspective it was a simple invitation to start a conversation to get to know him. When Jason received the text, he concluded that I wanted to talk to him because I liked him. The girl of his dreams wanted to talk to him.

The simple greeting turned into paragraphs. As the paragraphs turned into chapters, Jason was still able to reply with lightening speed on his little flip phone, typing with “T9”. Oh the good old days. I remembered talking about hobbies, family dynamics, friends but most importantly, about God. What stood out about my new found friendship with Jason was that we could dive into deep spiritual conversations really easily. I hadn’t met someone my age who was so passionate about God. Side note. If you’ve met Jason, that is one word that I would use to describe him: passionate. He is really passionate about life.

Our friendship grew and the conversations evolved. We met almost daily for lunch with our Frisbee friends. The group lunches turned into routine brunch dates twice a week in between classes at the student union. I was enjoying this new found friendship.

One late fall evening, we decided that we should go out to eat off campus instead of eating in the cafeteria. It was Veteran’s day, Jason was dressed in his formal “Class A” military uniform.  He was trying to impress me and it worked. He invited me to our first unofficial date out for hibachi. When we got to the restaurant for our unofficial date, I asked him a thousand questions. He talked about his military training and what all the terminology meant. I remember that by the time we received our check, I had scraped my plate and Jason had barely eaten. It was just odd for me because I wasn’t a big eater. 9 years later, that’s still the case. I’m always the first one finished because he’s telling me about something he’s passionate about. It’s funny what memories and habits stick with you.

One of our first times hanging out at the school Homecoming weekend with some of my roommates.

Read Part 3: How We Fell In Love