Our Story
Intro
For many of you, this will mostly be a boring recap of things that you already know. For others, however, this may be the thing that finally rounds out and completes the bits and pieces you may know about us. Your humble narrator for this adeventure will be Brian, but as you can guess, Jackie may have some edits to my understanding of things (imagine that!). Her comments will be in brackets and italics: [like this]. Enjoy.
Part One – Firsts (Fall 1999 – Fall 2000)
First Sight, First Talk
Jackie and I first met about a year before we started dating, at a Sabino High School football game. Melissa Proctor was a mutual friend of ours and introduced us. It was a very brief encounter, and I will confess that I didn’t really think much about it at the time, since I was in the midst of a stupid freshman crush on another insignificant girl, who didn’t even like me in the slightest. [I thought he was cute!] That was the only time I would see her that year, since she was still attending Emily Gray Junior High.
The year rolled on, and summer came. During one of my summer phone conversations with Melissa, she told me she’d be spending the night at Jackie’s house (”You remember her, don’t you?”), and to call her there. I ended up talking to Melissa for about 5 minutes, and then to Jackie for about 85 minutes, interrupted (very rudely, I might add) by several hang-ups by the then 12-year-old Lindsey Bupp. At this point I knew that I liked Jackie very much, but it wasn’t to the point of full blown crush.
Yet.
First Dance
Oddly enough for 15-year-olds, our first real encounter with each other was at a nightclub. Cactus Moon (yeah…that one) had what they called “Teen Night” on one day out of the week, where they basically shut down the bar and let kids in. I went with Guy Welsh, and Jackie came with Melissa. This time when I saw her I melted. I was finally not distracted by fleeting crushes and really saw her this time.
I was like glue to her the rest of the night. If she danced, I danced. If she got a drink, I got a drink. I was not letting her go. At some point (maybe after hearing “Baby Got Back” for the second time that night…) we decided to go for a walk. We ended up walking to a Barnes and Noble, which, while incredibly dorky, shouldn’t really be a surprise to anyone. Finally, the night came to an end. [Of course he forgets the part where he kept trying to kiss me and I kept talking out of nervousness so he couldn't]
But I was hooked [Me too! But I was disappointed when it took him so long to call after Teen Night (2 days). We talked on the phone most nights after that].
Dating
School started again, and Jackie and I were now going to the same school. It took about one week for me to ask her out. From that point on (August 24, 2000), we’ve been a couple, with only a few (ha!) bumps along the way.
Part Two – High School (Fall 2000 – Summer 2003)
Commitment Crisis
Things were going great. That is, until that C-word started creeping into my thoughts. Jackie and I have always been a little ahead of the curve when it comes to life choices, but a commitment crisis at 16 is a little ridiculous. The thing is, I already knew by the Spring of 2001 that we would never break-up. It just wasn’t going to happen. So I started to think, “Am I really going to date the same person for all of high school?” [I couldn't understand why he was so cold all of a sudden, I loved him, those questions had never crossed my mind] At the time, this was scary to me. I couldn’t figure out why exactly, but scary nonetheless.
So, I did something stupid. I broke up with the girl that I loved — for about 3 hours [that was a really awful 3 hours that involved a lot of crying]. It took about nine seconds for me to immediately regret my decision. At this point, I resolved to make everything right the next day. Jackie, however, who has always been a little more driven than me, called back 3 hours later.
“You’re being stupid,” she said [and he was].
I agreed. And proceeded to apologize for the next 8 months of my life [yes he did].
One year, no looking back
Our first year of dating came, and each one after became less of a huge deal. I guess that’s kind of how it works. It just becomes less impressive until you start hitting those milestone years.
At any rate, a more subtle transformation began to occur. Not with us, but with our families. Things began to become more intertwined. Suddenly our families were having dinner together. At some point, Jackie’s family began to have a standing invite to Thanksgiving, and we ended up starting a new tradition of meeting for dinner on Christmas Eve. Things began to become so enmeshed that Jackie and I joked that our families wouldn’t let us break-up.
With this, things went very well right up to graduation, and people were mostly happy. And then college came.
Part Three – College (Fall 2003 – Spring 2008)
Year One – Distance!
I had always wanted to go east for college. I applied to several East Coast colleges, including Brown, George Washington, and, of course, Rochester Institute of Technology. I ultimately settled on RIT, where I could study engineering and play baseball.
Jackie was going to the University of Arizona.
Thus, the problem: distance. I was confident that we would be able to manage it, however difficult it may get. And things did get difficult. Really. Difficult [Difficult doesn't even begin to describe it. I always said it was more like medieval torture].
We managed to make it through the first year, but this was definitely something that we did not want to continue. I was in a fairly stable situation at RIT, but Jackie was in somewhat of a transition. Her original choice of major didn’t work out, and she was looking for a new direction. She decided that transferring would not only be fairly harmless from an academic standpoint, but could open an oppurtunity to close the distance gap. She settled on Buffalo State College, in Buffalo, NY. One hour door-to-door from each other [One of the best decisions ever!].
Things were looking up.
Years Two through Four – The Grind
These years sort of blend together for me. Jackie was generally liking her situation in Buffalo, while I was chugging along at RIT. We saw each other fairly often, although not as often as we’d like, due to my baseball schedule. I’d say we averaged every other weekend [Mostly me driving to Rochester].
There were some periods during the Summer & Fall where we would be a little farther away from each other. RIT is a big believer in internships, which they call co-ops. I did a couple of 6 month stints at an Intel factory in Hudson, MA. These periods reminded us a lot more of Year One, which was a little depressing, but the good news was they were only 6 months, and we weren’t excessively far from each other.
Jackie graduated in the spring of 2007 [Woohoo!]. I still had one more year to go, which was pointing to another awful situation come winter.
But first, the happy part.
Our First Place
I landed my last co-op in Phoenix at the Intel site in Chandler. This was great because it was where I wanted to be, and it was also close to family which we both liked. There was also no snow, which was a major plus for us after experiencing the hell that is winter in Western New York.
We ended up renting our first place in Mesa, which was a small 1 bedroom/1 bath apartment. We transitioned perfectly.
Jackie was on the job hunt, and I was just eagerly awaiting my first paycheck…
The Proposal
I didn’t really know what I wanted to do for the proposal. I knew which ring she wanted (thanks to the big circle in the Kay ad she gave me) [I left the ad in his car with the one I wanted circled. I used to make fun of him for keeping it but it was a good thing he did!]. I’m not really one for cheesy schmaltz, and neither is Jackie, so I didn’t want to go that route.
I finally settled on a trip to the Grand Canyon. Jackie had never been there [Probably because I am afraid of heights and the opportunity had not presented itself] and I thought I could cleverly disguise the trip as a you’re-from-Arizona-and-you’ve-never-been-there-we-gotta-go trip. It kind of worked [I had a suspicion].
The trip was planned, but I still didn’t really know exactly when I wanted to do it. I knew we had to be alone, but I also knew that it had to be special. I ended up slightly winging it.
We stopped in Sedona to check things out a little bit on the way up. I decided that we would find a secluded trail, and I would propose when no one was around. This almost worked.
Right as I was about to kneel, someone comes bounding by on the trail, which created somewhat of an awkward moment. But that didn’t stop me.
I kneeled. She said yes. She cried [I also thought... finally!].
Then we went to the Grand Canyon, engaged.
Back to School, One Last Time
The fall came, and when Novemeber hit, it was time for me to go finish college. Leaving this last time hurt the most for me. It was like some cruel joke, to let us have a normal life for 6 months, after so much waiting, only to have it ripped away once more.
Jackie stayed in the small apartment we picked out, and I trudged up to Rochester. We managed the distance with one constant refrain: “This is the last time.” [I'm pretty sure the fact that it was our last time apart was what kept me sane]
I graduated in the Spring of 2008. I had accepted a job offer at Intel while I was still on co-op sometime in August, which made things relatively stress free.
I was coming home at last [Yay!].
Part Four – Real Life (Spring 2008 – Present)
Finally!
It only took us about 8 years, but we finally settled into a normal life. No distance. No fear of a dreaded separation looming on the horizon. Just us doing what we do — together.
And that’s basically what we’ve been doing since. We’ve moved to a new place in Scottsdale. We’ll probably be looking to buy a home in the next 18-24 months. Oh, and we’re getting married in October.
That’s it.