It Only Took 9 Years
It Only Took 9 Years
It was the fall of 2013, at McQuaid Jesuit’s first middle school dance of the year. We were both in 8th grade. I was standing with a few friends in our cafeteria mid way through the dance when I looked over and saw her for the first time. Without looking away, I said to my friend “I want to go talk to her.” I walked to the back of the cafeteria where she was standing with a few people. I made some self effacing joke about not being able to dance, which made her laugh. I introduced myself and then we walked around the rest of the night, talking through the salvos of early 2010s pop music, think Gangnam Style and Party Rock anthem. By the end of the night she was typing her number into my sliding keyboard track phone. And, to the advice of no one, after only leaving the dance for fifteen whole minutes, I was texting her on the drive home trying to get a date.
While she put on this air of hard to get and not interested to come off as cool and mysterious, little did I know her parents said she wasn’t allowed to date yet. This was quickly relaxed upon realizing our parents worked together at Bausch & Lomb. My father informed me that her mother was a nice but terrifying lawyer and his advice was, “Don’t mess this up.” We got around her no date rule by having a “friends” hangout where we and two of our closest friends were allowed to hangout instead. This “hangout” consisted of us immediately leaving the observation of her parents to go to a nearby park, where we all listened to Colby’s favorite One Direction songs and played Truth or Dare. Colby was dared by our friends to either kiss me or eat recently thrown out cake from a trashcan nearby. She chose the cake.
The next time we hung out was at my parents’ home on Lake Ontario. We were sitting on a big rock on the water’s edge and I planned to give Colby a four leaf clover from Ireland and attempt our first kiss. I gave her the clover… but chickened out on the kiss.
A few months later was the McQuaid formal; I did not take Colby as my date because she seemed uninterested in me. I didn’t even know she was at this dance at all, until her favorite One Direction song came on. While I was singing it with my date because Coby taught me all the lyrics, Colby stormed up to me, angry that I didn’t ask her to the dance and worse, I was singing her favorite song to somebody else! (Disclaimer: the girl I took as my date had no interest in me at all, we went as friends). This interaction turned into us somehow arguing our way into another date.
A couple weeks later on the way to our first real date, my father tried giving advice such as hold the door for her, stay until her father picks her up at the end, etc. On this, our first unaccompanied date, we awkwardly held hands as we watched one of the worst comedy movies of the decade. At the end we sat outside the theater, waiting for her father to pick her up. Little did I know her dad was already there, but Colby pretended not to see him, hoping I would finally kiss her. I didn’t. Again. A few days later Colby told me her mom had a new job in Chicago and they were moving. We slowly stopped chatting after that... just following each other on Instagram for the next 9 years.
Tickets Saved by Colby Since 2014
Movie Tickets Restored & Digitized By: Sam Calvert
I was scrolling through social media one night when I saw a post from Colby Roberts. She posted that she was going to attend the University of Pennsylvania for graduate school. I was in Delaware for school and had several friends and family in Philadelphia. I checked my contacts, low and behold I still had her number! I do not know what possessed me to text my 8th grade crush on a whim after 9 years of no contact but I did. I congratulated her on Penn and asked if she wanted some contact info for my sister or friends for advice on Philly, where to go, what to do, etc.
She responded. She said thanks and that she’d love to buy me a beer and catch up when she moved to the city. A few months later she texted me asking my availability; we decided to meet for a drink. I parked at my sister’s in the city. My sister asked who I had a date with; I said I didn’t think it was a date.
9 Years Later…
I remember sitting at the bar and hearing from behind me, “Hey stranger.” I turned and thought “wow” but casually responded, “So what have you been up to the last 9 years?” One drink became dinner, dinner became more drinks.
Several hours later, waiting for our Ubers in the rain, my ride came first. And just like 9 years prior, I was ready to drive off. Thankfully, she grabbed my collar and kissed me. I said “I wish you had done that 9 years ago.” She responded “So do I.”
I got back to my sister’s, informed her she was correct as always, and drove back to Delaware. The next day I drove up for another date. One date became a weekend. A weekend became every weekend.
Eight months later we moved in together. Two years after that, on the same rock by the water at my parents’ home, where I gave her my four leaf clover, where I didn’t kiss her and failed to ask her to be my girlfriend, I finally got it right - I asked her if she’d marry me. The second time around worked.
