In January of 2011 I was 17 years old and a senior in high school. I was highly active in sports and was preparing to move off to college. I was single and had no intensions of having a girlfriend..not until one Friday night.
My good friend, Jacob, or as the boys called him "Taco" called me up. He said he was going on a date with this chick named Amber. The only problem was Amber's parents wouldn't let her go on a date unless another couple tagged along. Taco said "come on Jay, you don't even have to talk to this girl, just come hang out so I can take this girl on a date." I didn't have anything else to do so I figured, what the hell. On the way to pick them up, I looked her up on facebook. Her name was Skylar Pease. I thought to myself, she is cute, but she doesn't look like my type. I convinced myself from the get go I wouldn't like her..
Taco, myself, Skylar and Amber all went to a bowling alley to hang out. I was quiet at first, nervous I guess. Skylar kept getting bits of conversation out of me until I finally felt comfortable to talk to her. We literally talked about everything we could talk about. I basically told her my life story. I pulled a pretty smooth move, giving her my jacket. I guess she felt comfortable with me too because on the way home, she laid her head on my shoulder. I can remember my heart about to beat out of my chest. I was hooked no doubt.
Skylar and I talked over the phone for the next two days and decided to hang out on our own. I went over to her house and hung out for a few hours. We went for a walk around her neighborhood, just sharing our hopes and dreams. Finally we stopped and I looked into her eyes and told her I really enjoyed spending time with her and that I could get used to this. She smiled and said me too. I liked her, but I never would have guessed what our future would turn into. We took our first picture together that day and me and Skylar were officially a couple!
The next few months went great. We got closer and closer as college grew closer and closer. We wakeboarded together, went to concerts, took day trips to the beach, went to prom and saw each other every chance that we had. My family loved her and her family loved me. I was falling more and more in love with her as the days started to turn to months. We had our share of fights and high school drama, but we always prevailed and grew stronger from it. I graduated from high school in June of 2011. Skylar and I had been dating for half a year. Man time had flown by! To celebrate my graduation, we took a trip together. We went to Panama City in Florida for a week, just me and her. This trip is where I started realizing that she could be my soul mate. We played putt putt, raced dune buggies, played in the ocean and she even paid for me to get a tattoo! We had a blast and headed home a week later.
Summer went fast, we spent most of our days out on the lake where I wakeboard at. Everything was so perfect. Skylar was starting to get extremely clingy, which I didn't mind at all, but there was fear in her. She knew I was about to leave for college and she was still going to be in high school another year. I assured her that we would be fine. I had been battling some bad anxiety problems throughout the summer, I guess it's because I was so nervous about going to college. It was a huge change in my life but I just couldn't shake the anxiety. I was having panic attacks, night tremors and was losing weight from not eating. I moved to Savannah on September 9, 2011. Savannah was 2 hours from where Skylar lived, which wasn't too bad. She came with my parent's and helped me move in. The first night was pretty rough. I woke up with night tremors which lead into a full on panic attack. I called Skylar and told her I was coming home that i wasn't ready. She talked to me and calmed me down. I finally was able to fall asleep and the next day i got to meet my roommates. I decided I would tough it out and overcome this anxiety.
A few months went by and my anxiety slowly but surely went away. I drove 2 hours home every weekend to see Skylar. We started to argue a lot, mostly just because of the distance. It was extremely hard, but we did it! Finally, we had reached our year and a half anniversary and Skylar was graduating. She got accepted to a different college than me, but it was also located in Savannah! Imagine that, haha. So in August of 2012, Skylar moved to Savannah and we were finally back living in the same city! The next year was so much easier. We were seeing each other a few times a week and most weekends. We were stronger than ever and things couldn't have been better.
My Junior year of college came and all of my friends were now seniors. I turned 21 and was finally old enough to go to the bars with them. We started going out a lot on the weekends and I was a bit of a party animal. Skylar and I were still together, but we were slowly falling apart. At first I didn't notice it, I was too caught up in the college life style. I was partying and going to bars. I wouldn't admit it at the time, but I was a kid. I needed to grow up for Skylar and our relationship but I wouldn't take the blame. It got so bad that finally I just ended it. I decided that having a girlfriend was a terrible decision and that I wanted to be single, I wanted to talk to other girls. We broke up and for the next week we didn't speak at all. I was fine at first, I was pretty much so angry that I couldn't be sad. Then I started to notice something. Every girl that I would try and approach or think about talking to, I would compare her to Skylar. I told myself I would only talk to someone that I thought was better than Skylar. I started to realize that Skylar was perfect. She was exactly the girl I wanted and needed and that I was an idiot. No girl was better than Skylar. I came to my senses and begged her to talk to me. We talked it out and I confessed that it was all my fault. I knew I had fucked up and I promised to never do it again. I decided from that point on I would dedicate myself to Skylar, and I did. I grew up and became the man I needed to be for her.
I graduated college the following year. Skylar was now a junior and we had been strong the past year. I graduated in June of 2015. Skylar and I had been together almost 4 and a half years!!
I got a job the same week that I graduated and also a studio to live in. I started working full time and finally making some money! I worked full time for 3 months and in November I finally took the step. I bought a ring.
I wasn't quite ready to propose to her, but I knew that I was ready to spend the rest of my life with her. I bought the ring and kept it hid in my guitar case for the next couple of months. We had our 5 year anniversary January 24th 2016. To celebrate Christmas and our anniversary, we decided to go on a snowboard trip. Her best friend, hunter, and her boyfriend Brett, who was a close friend of mine, went with us. Skylar had never even seen snow before so it was so exciting when we started seeing snow flakes as we got closer and closer to our destination. We drove from Savannah, Georgia all the way to Boone, North Carolina. It was about a 7 hour drive.
The first night it was pouring down snow. The conditions were perfect actually. Night riding was my favorite so we decided to go ahead and go that night. We were jsut about to get started snowboarding and I aske dSkylar to take a picture with me first. The mountain was lit up with all of the lights and it was snowing super heard. We stood ther eand posed for a picture, little did she know, my go pro was filming :) What happened next was the greatest moment of my life.
I dropped to one knee and said "Skylar Rae Pease, you are by far the best thing that has ever happened to me. I love you more than anything in this world and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?" She said yes!!! Finally! After 5 years and everything that we went through together, we were engaged!!! The rest of the trip was awesome. Skylar did great snowboarding and we had so much fun. We came back to Savannah and let the world know of our engagement! Everyone was super happy and super supportive of our decision.We started out as a blind date. No one knew we would fall in love or that we would spend the rest of our lives together. These past 5 and half years have been truly amazing and have been the most epic journey. We still go to concerts, go wakeboarding, surfing and just enjoy life together! There is a such thing as true love. It took hard work and dedication, but we toughed it out and it is the greatest thing I have ever had in life. We have an entire life time left together and I can't wait to see where our journey takes us. Stay tuned for pictures of our house and our wedding will be here before you know it!! I also got her to join steem!
If you love someone, make sure they know it. I wake up with a smile every morning because I have the person I will spend the rest of my life with laying there beside me. Thanks for reading!