He said the fact I wasn’t impressed that he was a musician made him know I was the one.

Having given out CDs to our entire class, he asked me what I thought (I later learned he gave out CDs to everyone just so I could have one). I was honest, “the first few songs sounded messed up but it got better as it went on.” Not the response he had hoped for, I left him standing in the door way of our art studio completely speechless.

I was no fool. It was going to take much more than a tall, handsome boy (with a guitar and too many layers of clothes) to swoon me.

He was relentless and I was intrigued. We had been hanging out for several weeks when I agreed to accompany him on a road trip to Raleigh and watch him perform. It was that weekend two kids in an old jeep traveling north on 85, windows down and the crisp October air filling their lungs…. fell in love.

We were in a parking lot, stretched out on the hood of his jeep with the sun beating down on our faces as we talked about the past and what we wanted for the future. He jumped up and grabbed my hand, pulled me off the hood and knelt down in front of me as he slipped a silver band off his finger and placed it on mine.

“This is my promise to you, that if you will let me, I will love you forever, and this won’t be the last ring I put on your finger.”

Today we have been married for three years and together for seven, and though I may love October for the crisp air and seasonal coffee….I love it most because each year it brings back memories of new love that continues to surprise me.

Year after year.