Small Ring, JP Wedding

There are thousands of great love stories out there, but ours is my absolute favorite. You see, I was the odd ball, fat friend growing up. Being fat was hard enough, but I was also very tall for my age in elementary and middle school. Girls like me were often on the receiving end of bullying or mean-spirited pranks/jokes. Being bookish, an otaku (anime fan), a band nerd, and a theater kid didn't help matters either. I had a few short-lived romantic encounters in high school, but my first true love didn't come until I after high school. They were my world for almost two years, and when they proposed, I said yes. Not even a month later, that relationship imploded. I was irrevocably devastated. That hurt changed me in ways I still can't explain in words and the messy, awful parade of toxic romantic encounters that followed. Well, they, too, hurt me in ways I wouldn't understand for nearly a very long time, but ultimately, I wouldn't change a thing. Was I devastated, yes, and for several years after that engagement led to nothing. Was I ready to give up on love, yes, and just when I began to enjoy being single. I met a man in an online chat room one night. He and I would spend the next year talking all night every night for a year. Then, I was laid off during the recession of 2008 and was unable to find work in my hometown. (My hometown was very small) This internet friend offered to move me in with him as he lived in an oil boom town, and there are always jobs a plenty. We hatched a plan for me to move in with my internet friend. My friends and loved ones protested. "He could be Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer for all we know," they said. Because of their distrust in me and lack of faith in humanity, they asked him (the internet friend) to do a background check, to give them the year/make/model/plates/vin number of his car. He never wavered and laughed when I apologized about their behavior. He just looked at me and winked as though it were all a joke to him. He even provided his ID information without hesitation, and it was right then that I fell for him. I moved across the state to live with the strange man from the internet, my friend. Just two short months later, he proposed with the ring you see in the picture. Two months after proposing, we heard an ad for free JP weddings in honor of Valentines Day. So we went to City Hall to get married, but neither of us has been married before and didn't know we needed a marriage license first. We filled out those forms and went home to tell parents and siblings about the plan. We didn't own anything but the clothes on our backs and a bed. We didn't have money, my in-laws helped him buy this ring, but I loved him. That was enough for me. Three days later, we had ourselves a little JP wedding with immediate family only.

... in 14 months, I went from giving up on love to finding my best friend and soulmate...

This coming holiday season will be our fifteenth year of holidays together, and in February (2025), we will celebrate fourteen years of marriage. I can't imagine what my life would be if I had listened to my friends and family who tried to talk me out of moving in with him! Our relationship has survived homelessness. Bankruptcy. So much family drama that I could write several Lifetime-esque tv dramas. We almost got divorced once. Yet here we are all these years later, our marriage is stronger because of what it's survived and our love runs so deep he's healed parts of me I didn't know needed healing.

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That is what my ring symbolizes, and that is why I love this ring. It may not have the wow factor most engagement rings have. I know he might wish he'd proposed with a bigger, better one. I know he might wish we'd had a big wedding and taken a honeymoon because that's what the status quo is, but honestly, I don't regret a single thing. NOT ONE THING about any of it. The ring, a wedding, a honeymoon... none of that makes a marriage more official, nor does it make a marriage work.

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Marriage isn't for everyone because it isn't always easy.

#marriedlife #truelove #soulmates #happyeverafter #storytime