That’s What She Said
How we met is what I like to call a series of coincidental run-ins, consisting of lots of eye glances and awkward hellos. It seemed like God had a plan for us, long before we did.
Not everyone knows this, but we actually met when I was a senior in high school. It all started when my best friend, and now maid of honor, Katie Hinson and I took a road trip to watch her boyfriend and his band play a show in Rock Hill, SC. Ryan happened to be in charge of this event. I remember the first time I saw him I thought he was the cutest thing ever. Very mysterious! I’d like to say it was love at first sight between us, but I’m pretty sure that he didn’t even notice me. He begs to differ of course. We even went to his house after the show because his roommate was a good friend of ours, but there was nothing more than a quick group introduction before everyone went their separate ways. It took some convincing after we started dating 3 YEARS later that we actually met before I was in college, which leads me to the next part of our story... the college years.
This is where all the brief but awkward exchanges come into play. There were so many times when we would see each other out and about around Winthrop University - even saying the occasional hello to each other in passing, like we were old acquaintances. After one run-in on Halloween of ’06 I finally decided to get the guts to take the next step. Thanks to my good friend Facebook, I was going to officially ask him to be my “friend.” But to my surprise, when I went to add him as a friend, Facebook informed me that we were already “friends.” It turns out that he not only asked me to be his friend long before then, he had also wished me happy birthday that past year! Ryan now admits that he was doing quite a bit of work of his own to get the ball rolling long before we started dating. Instead of taking this sign as an opportunity to contact him though, I of course chickened out.
It wasn’t until the following January that we met again - the 26th to be exact. It was my good friend, roommate, and now bridesmaid, Maeghan Pawley’s birthday. We went to the local Irish pub and Winthrop hangout, McHale’s, to celebrate. And once again, who did I see but the future love of my life. Eventually the awkward wave hello came along like it always did, but this time I built up the courage to walk over to him and tell him exactly how cute I thought he was. I know, I know, the boy is supposed to approach the girl, but I like to think of this as an exception to the rule and the best decision I’ve ever made! So to sum things up - and what we like to tell people as short and shocking version of our story - we met when I hit on him in a bar, and we’ve been inseparable ever since!
