We went to the same tiny college for two and a half years before ever running into each other. It’s weird to think back and wonder how many times we were standing right next to each other without ever knowing how much fun we had waiting for us in the future.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw Nate. Had I known I was going to meet my husband this day I would have worn another outfit. I wore a lazy dress that went from black to blue to red to yellow and cowboy boots. (I don’t remember this but Nate does…he said he saw me, saw my dress, and assumed I was a party girl… he thought they were Rasta colors)

It was day one of Portraiture 242, which focused on photographing families and children.

Our first assignment was to photograph a self- portrait and it was due upon walking into the classroom. We were instructed to put our photo up on the critique rack and form into groups of 5. Thank God I had a group of 3 people I knew in the class.

Like most projects in school, I waited until the night before to do it and ended up taking a selfie before “selfies” were a thing! I was relieved to find out that no one else really put effort into the portraits either.

Nate was late so the whole class noticed him. I leaned over to my friend Matt and said “ooo there’s my eye candy for this session” No joke I did! He wasn’t dressed like the normal Brooks student. He looked clean like he just got out of the shower; he had on a nice pair of jeans and a collard shirt. He looked like a grown up. Like he had a job or somewhere important to be after class. I assumed he had a girl friend but that wasn’t going to keep me from looking.

Since he was late the professor started the critique on his image.

I was surprised to see some production value to his portrait…like he actually spent some time and put some effort into it. I assumed he was a goody two shoe, going above and beyond on the first project and what not.

The professor did not share the same first impression of Nate’s work. He didn’t like it and he ripped it apart with no mercy.

I wasn’t one to speak up…I pretty much kept to my self and said a lot under my breath during critiques. But for whatever reason this time I interrupted the professor and said, “I strongly disagree! First off, you can see this guy owns a nice shirt and tie; which means he probably isn’t a low life like the guys I’ve been dating and he’s hot! The only thing its missing is his phone number because I’m interested” just kidding that’s not what I said but I did speak up and I did defend his picture…But I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what Nate heard me say

Just for that my picture was up next on the chopping block. I knew if the professor didn’t like the image that was actually good…he was going to hate mine…so I braced myself.

He went straight personal and said I had a creepy joker smile and that moms would be leery of trusting their kids with me. RUDE!! (you can’t make this stuff up! Okay, maybe you can, but this was my real life!!) While I sat there having no idea how to defend my smile…Nate spoke up and said, “I think she has a great smile! My heart sank and I went from being offended to being stoaked!!! Hot guy said I have a great smile!! I smiled at him and the professor moved on to other images. We spent the rest of the critique time smiling and “not” looking at each other. After crit was over I invited him to be apart of our group…

We had to meet up that weekend and take group photos of each other demonstrating the triangle effect. I was late this time. Knowing Nate was going to be there I clearly needed to spend more time getting ready! I showed up wearing the tightest black dress I owned lol it was real classy. (But actually it was just another party girl impression that I put out there without realizing it)

The dress must’ve worked because Nate invited me over to his house to use his Epson 3800 printer! He gave me his number and asked for mine in front of the whole group and I was peeing my pants! (my hypothetical non existing pants)

He owned his own printer?! This guy was turning out to be just what I needed in my life! I had been driving 30 miles to school every time I needed to print something and he lived just 3 minutes from my house! Plus he was well-dressed, mature, funny, good looking, with blonde hair, blue eyes and did I say good looking?! I rushed home to find something worth printing and gave Nate a call.

(to be continued…. don’t worry it ends well)