How We Met

 English 101. That class... I don't remember a thing the teacher said but that class changed my life forever. It was my last class of the day. I had met so many people in such a short amount of time. Some from orientation, some from classes, and some from the awkward crammed elevator rides. Out of all of my friends that I connected with, most are now married, and one of them is my husband.

He was sitting in the front row on the opposite side of the room as me. He sat alone. He had his notebook out and was ready to pay attention. "He must have just gotten off his mission" I thought. He was too old to be 18, so he must be a returned missionary. Most of the guys at my school were. He was wearing a plaid button up with a white v neck underneath. He had on a pair of  khaki cargo shorts. Ones from Hollister or American Eagle. He had on flip flops. His hair was inbetween long and short. Almost like he was trying to grow it out, or had just gone a little too long between haircuts.

The teacher introduced himself and gave us the syllabus. He explained how the semester was going to work and how we would be graded. [I have to mention the fact that this man was ANCIENT. Walking skeleton status. Moving on... ] He then assigned us our first paper. It was a profile essay. Usually a teacher wants you to write an about me paper so they can get to know you. This was a twist on that concept. We had to write a paper about someone else in the class. We had to interview a class mate and write a paper on them. But wait, there was more. Then we had to present our paper to the class aloud, while they sat in front of the class listening. The teacher then asked us to choose partners and fill out a questionnaire about one another, interview style, for the rest of the class time.

Conner turned around. He started looking around the room and I asked him, " Hey do you want to be partners?" He agreed and I moved up to the front row to sit by him. I wasn't like "Oh my gosh this is my future husband!!!!" I just thought he was a kid who I could be friends with in this class. I found out that he had gotten home from his mission in Sao Paolo, Brazil nine months ago, (not a month ago) and that he was in his second semester at the Business College. He had been a manager at Hollister, which explained the clothing. He had a girlfriend back home who was getting baptized and he lived in Salt Lake with some friends just down the street. We talked and laughed and found out that we had some things in common like movies, and life goals. We both liked sports and books. I made fun of his sports team choices and he openly hated mine. It was fun. We didn't get all the way through the questionnaire before class was over and I had to catch the bus. We agreed to finish next class, said goodbye and went our separate ways.

I missed the next class because I slept in and missed my bus to Salt Lake. We were not able to finish our papers and because of this Conner was pretty ticked at me. He thought I had dropped the class and left him hanging.. He asked the teacher what he should do and he told him to just write a paper on himself and present that. So he did. Well SURPRISE I showed up next class and told the teacher that I didn't have a paper because I had missed the last class. He told Conner to scrap his paper on himself, and finish the project with me. Let's just say that Conner was more than a little upset.

He played it cool but the next class he came in after me and purposefully sat on the opposite side of the room behind me. I saw him and immediately got up and moved my stuff next to him saying, " Why did you move?!" as I sat down next to him. I was so oblivious. Classic Cami.. anyways, I took the humor approach to the assignment where Conner was sweet and sincere. I basically sat and listened to a compliment Cami-fest and then regretted not going first when it was my turn. I basically made jokes about all the things I thought were silly about him like his sports teams and complimented him a little bit. I honestly don't know why he ever talked to me again. We sat down after it was over and laughed about it.

It was that assignment that brought us together as friends and we sat by each other for the rest of that semester. We learned a lot about one another and I really believe that it helped us cultivate the best friends mentality that we have had our entire relationship. We were friends first. We weren't trying to impress each other and showed our faults openly. This helped us love everything about each other, not just the good stuff. I know that I fell in love with Conner that semester. The more I learned about him, the more I wanted to see what life would be like with him. I am so glad that I got to find out.