Anyone that knows me well can tell you that I am not a very good decision maker.
Don’t ever ask me to choose which restaurant to eat at or which movie to see.
I just can’t make the decision, it’s just too hard for me.
So when I did this giveaway I knew I wouldn’t be able to choose the winning couple.
I sent all the stories to some of my close friends and they made the decision for me!
drum roll please….
The winners are Ryan & Julie!
Email me to set up your session!
Julie sent a song a with their story so I’m going to attach that at the bottom of the post.
Here is their story:
A studly, curly haired boy leads me into a bathroom where we kneel together on the ground. The bathtub is already filled with hot water. He brought with him, a bag chock-full of every conceivable color of fish. I then watch as he tips up the bag and pours the fish into the water, covers the tub with a white sheet, turns to me and says “it’s as if they were never there.”
I wake up to the sound of my alarm in awe at the ludicrous nature of that dream. Later that day as I leave work, I listen to a voicemail from the Ryan Hunter – the boy that I’ve been waiting to be set up with for months. I currently reside in his southern California home town while he is hundreds of miles away receiving an education in my home state. I hang up the phone from discussing our first date details and it hits me… that dream I had about Ryan, he took all of the fish, covered them up, and told me it’s as if they were never there. I was convinced in that moment that Ryan would show me that all of the other “fish” in the sea couldn’t measure up to him. He was home on vacation, and we were about to experience our first date.Many moons and dates later, I confess my desire to be in a relationship. Unfortunately, Ryan has conflicting thoughts, and we part with a hug and plans to be “just friends”. I then moved home to Utah without the prospect of having a stellar boyfriend. I compiled my emotions into a song titled “Fish” which made it onto my first self-released album, and into the hearts of the strangers who cared to listen. I felt defeated as time went by. The “fish prophecy” that I had so long ago was nothing but a silly dream.
Though I felt pretty confident that things were not going to “blossom” as they say, I remember being really impressed by this girl. And as time went on after my rejection of her romantic intentions, we actually became really, really good friends. Cliché, I know, but I wanted to go with it. The more time we spent together without the threat of imminent relationship formation, the more I was able to see her for the bright shiny star she was. We could talk for hours and hours on the phone, which was odd in and of itself – I could barely last more than a few minutes with my own mother! And as we talked, I found that she had fully-formed ideas about topics that others had only skimmed the surface of.Why couldn’t I feel about her the way that I thought about her? Sometimes I just assumed, “Well, I guess she’s just supposed to rock some other guy’s world.” But in my ongoing efforts to date other women, I was feeling harder and harder pressed to find anybody who could measure up to her. One night I called her again, to have another conversation about my love life and to try and get some “girl advice” from this woman I deemed so wise. After she listened patiently to my woes, Julie gave me some strange advice – she told me to be more physical with the girls I wanted to form relationships with. What? Nope, I heard correctly. The idea of being more physical with girls seemed to fly in the face of all of the dating counsel I had ever received, but the more we talked about it, the more I bought into the idea. As the conversation drew to a close that night, I remember realizing that it would have been so easy for Julie to work herself into the conversation and offer herself a candidate for this new dating method. But you know what? She never even mentioned herself. She just wanted to help a friend find his own happiness. And that was attractive. And so that was that. I decided that as soon as finals were over, I was going to call that girl up and ask her to give things another shot. And oh, how I hoped she would say yes.__________________When I heard those words come out of Ryan’s mouth via telephone, I was shocked. After all, I did just give him dating advice for a good two hours the week prior. For a year and half I had tried convincing myself that I needed to move on. I needed to forget about it, and start considering other men as potential companions. I wanted to punch him, throw up, and jump up and down from excitement all at the same time. Dignified, I was not – I didn’t hesitate to agree to his plans of forming a romantic relationship. I agonized for 3 weeks before we went on our “second first date.” Did he mention that he popped this question on his way to spend Christmas break with his family in California? I looked forward to that second reunion yet feared another rejection. This time, if that rejection came, it would hurt worse. I had to put all other suitors on hold and take my chances because maybe, just maybe… that dream was more than a dream.
Whoo! That was easy! I spent most of that drive to California congratulating myself for being so suave. And as the next two weeks passed, visions of sugar plums danced in my head as we talked on the phone and sent e-mails to each other. Then, at last we were reunited. For our “second first date,” we went to spend some time together up the canyon at a frozen waterfall that we both loved. After that, it took all of 6 days to bring up the subject of marriage. A month later we were back at the frozen waterfall once more, this time with a ring in my pocket. It only took a month to fill in the gaps in our friendship where the romance had been missing. We’re two lucky people, and we’re going to tie the knot on June 16th. And man, it can’t come soon enough!
