Our Story

Well, I just got back from visiting Tucson, AZ for Will's Grandma Hitchcock's funeral. It was sad to say goodbye to her, even though I've only met her a few times. She always took Will and I out for breakfast or lunch at Firr's or Denny's and loved the gospel and sharing it. Although it was sad to say goodbye, it was wonderful seeing that side of our family again.

Talking with the siblings right under in age from Will (ugh my college-level English is slowly transforming into elementary at best), I remembered what it was like to be single. I loved loved loved it, but I still longed for the companionship, growth and awesomeness that marriage would provide. Since I haven't done so yet and have been meaning to for a long time now, I'm going to post up the story of how Will and I met and got together. He wrote it down FOREVER ago, and I chimed in my two cents. Anyway, before I lose half of you to this long post, I wanted to tell my single friends a few things, particularly those who haven't found their Bestest Friend Ever yet.

First, don't give up. My good friend, who's 30 and has had periods where she doubted she'd ever marry, was just sealed in the temple (to those who don't understand this, click here), married to her best friend forever. Another one of my favorite friends up in Seattle is in her 30's, but she always speaks with so much positive hope for the future. I think that no matter what situation we're in, being POSITIVE and not giving up help living life that much easier.

Second, get involved. There are a lot of people that meet and get married just because they put themselves in the position to meet and to get married- hanging out with friends, going to activities (Church-related are reliable, but there are definitely other ways), and putting yourself out there. I've found that a lot of people like it when you actually put effort into talking to them =). Also, Will and I met through mutual friends, so it's good to be willing to participate in things.

Third, things don't always happen how you think. In fact, they kind of rarely do. This doesn't mean that you should stop going to activities and just wait for someone to show up, it means that just because something isn't working especially well right now doesn't mean that it won't work up to something that will. For instance, I went through 9 semesters at BYU-Idaho with not much more than 1 month relationships at best (the VERY best), and it has a reputation for marrying people off pretty quick. I did learn a lot from just dating though, and it also taught me more about the type of person to look for.

Forth, stay close to the Lord. Not too much to add about this, but making sure you're attending Church, praying, reading the scriptures, etc etc etc puts you in more of a position for the Lord to guide you to that special person.

Anyway, without any further ado, here's our story!!

Will and Jackie's Story as told by Will- Parto Uno

Side note: words in green are inputs by me (Jackie)

 

Sometime last year Jackie and I first met. We played a train game with Matthew along with Krystine over at Derek’s parents home. Though I lost horribly it was a fun time, since everyone there was really into games and it was fun discussing things with one another. After the game was over we sat down to play apples to apples. I believe I sat next to Jackie. She was a curious girl, who laughed and smiled a ton. She was very cute and for some reason I really wanted to hang out with her more. I got her number and tried to set another time that we could “hang out” but found out that she was headed to BYU Idaho and therefore I was too late.  (Jackie won the game)

I remember when I met Will that I thought that he was really cute, but at the time I was getting ready to go back to school. It was still nice to meet someone new though =). I gave him my number but didn’t really think that it would amount to anything since I was leaving, but since I like to hang out with new people I gave it to him anyways. Oh and by the way, I won the train game =D.

The day she left I decided to call her for fun. We had a good 15 minute conversation going until suddenly her connection died. I tried calling her back and a bit later got a phone call back and we continued to talk. Moments later the connection died again and then I decided to just leave a message on her phone that if she ever wanted to talk to someone that I was there and that she should call me sometime when her phone was in range of service.

It was fun but weird talking with him because I had only met him briefly, but he was really easy to talk to and I found myself enjoying the conversation. I can’t remember why I didn’t call him back, maybe it was because I didn’t really see it going anywhere due to my being at school. But I probably just forgot =).

I didn’t hear back from her until about four months later. I got a text from her inviting me to her Birthday celebration at Azteca. To be honest, I was interested in another girl at the time and really didn’t feel like being social that day knowing that there would be a ton of dudes and therefore slim chances of being able to flirt. Hahaha there actually were. He probably would have failed miserably. =) A month later I got another text from Jackie something about Vday and single awareness and love or something… I responded back but never got a response gotta love mass spam mail. I was trying to make Valentine’s Day a holiday of love for everyone, not just for couples. So in my political movement I included a mass text. =) I can’t remember Will’s response, nor my ignoring it =).

Later on I was at Derek’s new home and I was hanging out with Mathew, Derek and Lindsay looking at various pics on facebook. As we were looking around, Derek stopped to look at Jackie’s FB with pictures of Derek’s roommate and I assumed that they still had a thing going on.  I logged that in the back of my mind and life continued onward. 

A couple months later in May my father, brothers and I decided to go on a man-cation. We were going to go visit BYU ID and UT and then stop in AZ to meet up with my grandparents. My brother Joe had a road map with all the girls he knew on it that he wanted to visit. Not that I get jealous of my little bro or anything but I went and did the same. Though I only had two, I knew a girl in Cedar City I kinda dated and then I kinda knew Jackie in Idaho.  For kicks and giggles I decided to send Jackie a text wondering if she wanted to meet on campus or something. She actually responded to me and told me the day that I was going to be there she was having finals. But if I had time around four in the evening we could hang out. Well we met up with my cousin up there as well and decided to wait til four thirty. After leaving a message on her phone which obviously was being ignored we decided to continue our trek to Utah. At around eight she called wondering if by chance I was still in town… Lame. Okay, so I was not ignoring him. What really happened was one of my best friends/former roommate Krystine was in town, and I was going through finals and cleaning and everything that went with that, so I thought to myself, “Hang out with one of my best friends or with random guy from Seattle? Hmmmm. I’m going with Krystine.” I actually called him to find out if he wanted to hang out with us, but he was already on the road. Oh well =P.

Eventually I returned home and continued to live life like always. I talked with Derek about my failed attempt with meeting with Jackie and he told me it was for the best because she was planning to find a job in New York and had plans to move there. He also mentioned that she would be in town for a week or so. Anyways one Sunday on the 25^th of April while I was in church I noticed that she was sitting in the row behind me. Now at this point in my life I was looking to have some fun. I was concentrating on enjoying the last couple months in Seattle because I was going to move down to Tucson to go to school. And really I didn’t find many of the girls at the ward to be my type and when I saw Jackie I figured I would have fun and ask her to lunch or something expecting that it would be a one time thing since we were moving to opposite ends of the country and would most likely never see each other again. 

HAHAHA hahahahhaah…….

So as I ask her if she wants to go grab some Chinese food and I immediately get an excuse. Something about being booked each evening (TRUE!!!!) and luckily for me the week prior I was laid off from work therefore having any time of the day to do things. Now out of a good excuse she accepted my offer to have lunch. Yup. Even my excellent skills with men could not get me out of this one. ;)

TO BE CONTINUED...

This story is really long, and instead of having one drawn-out post I would rather have a bunch to make it a more tolerable read. Sorry for being evil, but hope you've enjoyed our story so far!

-Jackie