Me & My Man - Part 2

We continued to go out on dates here and there throughout the summer. When our senior year began the next fall neither of us had a clue about the year that lie ahead...

Part 2 - High School Drama

Our senior year kicked off in the Fall of 1998. Colin and I had grown pretty close over the summer. We were not at the point of calling each other "boyfriend" and "girlfriend," but there was no denying that we shared something and cared for one another.

When Colin was 11 he began mowing yards for some of his neighbors, and in the following years his business had grown to an impressive size for an after-school job. Our senior year he mowed a handful of yards most everyday after school and did several on the weekends. Although it was a bit out of the way, and not near any of his other yards, he began mowing my parents' yard too. I remember staring out the upstairs windows at him while he mowed our yard. I thought he was so handsome and strong! I even got a little bold and slipped a note or two for him in the envelope that my parents had taped to the back door where they would leave checks for him. :)

Colin and I continued to hang out with one another, and we could be found talking near our lockers between classes. Things in our relationship/friendship slowly grew a little awkward and strained, though. Being back at school, around a bunch of our nosey peers, added a lot of pressure. Our "summer fling," if you will, had been so easy because it was just the two of us with no concern for what others thought. We were your average teens who put unnecessary weight on the approval of our peers, and their scrutiny was intimidating. Colin and I were just so different from one another, and the fact that we had no friends in common became painfully obvious now that we were back to school.

Colin asked me to the Homecoming dance that Fall, and I was excited about going with him. He bought me a huge, "beautiful" mum to wear to the Homecoming football game. I remember feeling special because it was so large (3 flowers), it lit up with the turn of a switch, and by pressing a button it played music (the song "You Light Up My Life"). Oh, the silly things that we got excited about back then! I gave him a nice mum garter too. Friday night we went to the football game for awhile (I wasn't a huge football fan), and the next evening we went to the dance and had a great time.



My close girlfriends and I had a habit of coming up with code names for our high school crushes. My first code name was invented my freshman year for this senior guy that I was enthralled with. He had no idea that I existed, and I was not near courageous enough to dare say anything to him. Nonetheless he made me swoon. His code name: Mr. Universe. (Makes me laugh out loud to remember this!)

Anyways, now that Colin was in my life he needed a code name too. Mr. Universe had long graduated, but it seemed only appropriate to continue the "Mr." trend. So Colin's code name became: Mr. Wonderful. (Are you surprised?! If you thought I came up with that nickname just for the blog, now you know - it's actually been around nearly 10 years!)

Things continued along pretty smoothly in our relationship. We tried to bury any strain, any concern, and just enjoyed the time we had. We saw each other a few times over the Christmas break, and right before we headed back for our last semester we had our first DTR - Defining the Relationship - talk. We sat on the steps at my parents' house and talked for hours. Something was off, though. Things weren't as easy as they had been. I knew I was not ready to take the next step in our relationship and add the labels of "boyfriend" and "girlfriend." It hurt us both pretty bad, but I just didn't see the long-term potential. We had different lifestyles, and I knew I was set to go to Texas A&M the next year and Mr. Wonderful was still planning to go to UT. In my mind there was just no way this was going to last (and not just because of the rival schools!).

We parted ways and returned for our last semester of high school completely unattached to one another, or at least that's what we tried to convince ourselves. We would say the cordial hello in the halls, but it was just too hard and awkward to talk. There were days that I hurt so bad for a relationship with him, and he had his days where he missed me too.

A couple of months into the semester I learned through the grapevine that Mr. Wonderful had decided to go to Texas A&M, instead of UT. I was a little surprised by how excited this made me. I decided to use one of my A&M notecards and write him a note of congratulations about his decision and tell him that I was glad he was going to be a part of the Aggie family. I slipped the note into his locker between classes one day.

That little note ended up having big effects. Mr. Wonderful and I began talking more frequently at school, and a new little spark was secretly, cautiously burning in each of our hearts.

A day that most seniors look forward to for four years - PROM - was quickly approaching. I began quietly daydreaming about what this night would be like with Mr. Wonderful as my date...