this is a photo from the day I met jared.
you're not crazy, it's definitely prom. if you think that's weird, just wait till you hear the rest. jared & I were both homeschooled, & since there are so many homeschoolers in this area, there is actually a homeschool prom. (you can read that sentence again if you need to.)
the year was 2006. I was a senior. my best friend was in the purple dress. we were both on the "prom committee," planning decorations & playlists & BONUS! the senior gifts. every time the name "jared bethune" popped up on the list of senions, she went out of her way to make sure I knew that
she knew him. from way back when. hadn't heard from him in forever. "AWESOME." was usually my response. I didn't really care, & other than the used-to-know-that-guy factor, the conversation didn't go much further than that.
skip forward to prom night, april 21st. gretchen came running up to me with her purple dress hiked up to her knees, yelling over the music that she "FOUND HIM!!!" I screamed "WHAT?? WHO??" back in her face, but she just grabbed my wrist and pulled me across the dance floor. we were standing at a table. a boy was sitting in a chair. another boy was standing behind him, trying to talk to him over the bad techno song. gretchen didn't really care.
"KELSEY! THIS IS JARED!"
"WHAT???"
"THIS IS JARED! THAT GUY I WAS TELLING YOU ABOUT!"
"UHH... OH! HI, JARED!"
& then he said something back, but he wasn't hyper & screaming like us, so I couldn't hear him. I didn't care that I couldn't hear him. I was bored, & from the length of his hair, I wasn't really sure that I had time to stop & talk to what I thought was some skater kid when there was dancing to be done. we waved, said something about how it was nice to meet them & I pulled gretchen back to the dance floor. frank sinatra's come fly with me had just started playing, & in that moment, there was nothing better to be doing than running around with arms our arms out, flying through our senior prom.
I didn't see him the rest of the night.
it was only after we found each other through gretchen on myspace (yup, myspace) that I started paying attention to the skater kid from prom that my best friend used to know. turns out he wasn't a skater kid at all. he was an actor. a singer. a dancer. an artist. he had the theme from
eternal sunshine of the spotless mind playing on his myspace (yup, myspace again) profile & I remember thinking, "well, that's promising." turns out, he was interested in my best friend. turns out, she had a boyfriend.
he called her one night when she was spending the night at my house. he ended up on the phone with me when her boyfriend called her. we stayed on the phone for 6 hours. we talked about everything. I remember thinking how odd it was to talk to someone who knew nothing about me. no presuppositions. no impressions. & his voice. oh, his voice. his voice still makes me weak in the knees. just his talking voice... I could have listened to it for hours. & I did. & I have. & I will.
we were dating three weeks later. on may 27th, 2006, we took a walk through my parents neighborhood, where he sat me down in a garden on the golf course, kissed my hands & asked me to be his girlfriend. then we walked home. it wasn't a month into dating that I knew I loved him. at the ripe old age of 17.
& here we are! SIX whole years later, as of today. married &
everything. dating anniversaries don't get much attention after marriage, but we're kinda corny & I just can't let it pass without giving him bambi eyes & asking for a dance while
come fly with me plays in the background.
it's been an adventure,
jared stedman bethune.
my huckleberry friend.
& here's yet another
public proclamation of l-o-v-e.
