Fairytale, Chapter 1: Boy Meets Girl

Kelsey and I met in college, during the fall semester of our freshman year before classes even started. We both attended NIACC first (that's their slogan, and I don't care who you are, it's funny). I lived with three guys in an apartment and Kels lived with three girls just a few doors down. At the time, we were both dating our respective high school sweethearts boyfriend/girlfriend. Not long after, said girlfriend broke up with me, and I was taking it pretty hard. One of the first times Kels came over to our apartment, I was playing guitar in my room and really didn't want anything to do with company at our place. I think I even closed the door. A couple months later, Kels' boyfriend broke up with her. Kelsey: My first impressions of Eric were that he was tall and...odd. I think his hair was highlighted a horrible shade of orange, and, like he said, he was pretty closed off. Honestly, at this point I would have dated anyone in his apartment except for him...

From left: Nick, Danielle, Eric, Katie, Mike & Kelsey

I soon picked up the pieces of my broken heart and found the social moth inside of me to hang out with other people and make new friends. Our two apartments became pretty close. We hung out as a large group quite often, and, naturally, us guys would try to show off for the ladies. (Oh, to be young and in college again.) Kels and I started to realize we shared a common interest in music. We were both into punk rock bands at that time. Kels was really great at discovering new bands, so we would spend hours listening to songs she downloaded through Kazaa! (Do you remember the days of free music?) She was so technologically advanced for that time. I didn't even have my own computer! It was really developing into an awesome friendship.

At this point, I didn't have any romantic feelings for her, but I really cherished our friendship. I knew there was something special about her, though. Looking back, I think it was her faith. Actually, I'm sure it was. She has been a Christian all her life. I hadn't been to church since I was very young, and the only memories I had of it were falling asleep in the pew. Our friendship grew closer and closer through the fall semester of our freshman year.

This is the first photo we took together. Just friends. Check out our Fairytale page for more of the story...