I met a boy.
We think we were 10, when his older sister Heidi and I carpooled to gymnastics together, although maybe we met when we were 6 since he lived in the same ward as 3 of my aunts & uncles, and I occasionally visited for baby blessings and such. Or if we want to get really weird, maybe our moms passed each other in Dr. Judd's waiting room in Provo, UT while they were pregnant with us at the same time 21 years ago.
However we met, I remember glancing up when Mr. Peterson called out "Tucker Denton?" on the 7th grade science roll, first thing in the morning on the first day of 7th grade at Poston Jr. High, and knowing immediately that he was Heidi's brother.
We became friends. We teased each other in science. He sat right in front of me in reading. We had the same ELP social studies and English teachers. We both sang in choir. And we both signed up for National Academic League. Yes, it's really as nerdy as it sounds.
Heck yes, baby. Tucker and I are on either side of the kid front and center.
However we met, I remember glancing up when Mr. Peterson called out "Tucker Denton?" on the 7th grade science roll, first thing in the morning on the first day of 7th grade at Poston Jr. High, and knowing immediately that he was Heidi's brother.
We became friends. We teased each other in science. He sat right in front of me in reading. We had the same ELP social studies and English teachers. We both sang in choir. And we both signed up for National Academic League. Yes, it's really as nerdy as it sounds.
Anyway. So by 8th grade, we were pretty good friends, and by 9th grade, we were hooked at the hip. People told us how cute we were together, but we just had the Simba & Nala mindset of "I can't marry her! She's my friend!" We were partners in seminary and sang musical numbers together. We stayed after school together once to finish a project and got in trouble because our parents didn't know where we were. We were loud and silly and obnoxious and happy. We were Best friends.
January 31, 2007 was a rare, raining day. The heavens poured buckets, and our pants were wet up to our knees from sloshing across the street to seminary. During lunch time, our friends huddled under the overhang of the nearest building, shivering and trying to avoid getting totally soaked. But not Tucker and me. We climbed up on top of our lunch table and started singing and crazy dancing. Why? Because we're awesome. And rain is awesome. We got absolutely soaked. And as we parted ways for our next class, Tucker tossed me his jacket to keep the rest of the day so that I wouldn't freeze to death. That night, as I wrote in my journal, I realized something. Tucker was the answer to my prayers for a best friend. I went through a couple hard years with fake friends, but not real friends, and all I wanted was one person who would be my real friend. And here he was. And I realized I loved him. What? Yeah, kinda crazy, I know. Cuz 14-yr-olds are not supposed to know how to love, and it definitely weirded me out a little. But ya know what? I did love him. Sure, it was a young, sweet, innocent love, but I did. He made me smile. He made me laugh. I could be completely myself around him, which is saying a lot for that awkward age. I loved that he loved dancing and singing and Star Wars. He was already so spiritually grounded, far more than a lot of our peers, and we both strengthened our testimonies under the guidance of our favorite Brother Nielsen. He was my very Best friend. And as our friendship grew, I was reassured over and over again that he would be very important in my life someday. However, I also felt the very strong prompting to not do anything to ruin the fact that we were best friends
and that if I could do that, things would have a chance of working out.
Kind of a lot for a 14 year old to swallow.
High school began, along with quite a few years of repressing feelings from my best bud. We spent a lot of time together. We learned to drive in the same purple PT cruiser and black jeep with the sticky brakes. We went to football games and friends' parties on the weekends. We did summer musicals in the community together. We toured Austria and San Francisco with our choir. Tucker taught himself how to play the guitar and began writing songs, which proved quite useful wooing nice, pretty girls that he liked. And guess who got to preview the songs to make sure they weren't too cheesy? Yours truly. :) Sometimes I convinced myself I was crazy. There was no way I could actually know things would work out someday, right? I tried to force myself to have crushes on other guys to distract myself, but then Tucker would go and do something cute, and I'd be lost again. Poor Joseph was my sunshine through all of it. I vented to him about Tucker, & he just encouraged me & told me I wasn't crazy. & he vowed that if Tucker got home from his mission and still didn't know how I felt, then he'd tell him for me. In December 2007, Tucker staked his claim to be my first date & took me out 6 months later on the day I turned 16.
We also went to our first high-school dance together, which just encouraged everyone else who believed we were meant to be.
Honestly though, high school was a blast (except for most of junior year, which was just hard & exhausting in every way). We have the best group of friends in the whole world, and senior year especially was just a ton of fun with everyone. That was also the year that Tucker began to catch on. He went through a bit of a rough time, and I was always just the best friend. He once drove me around my neighborhood for an hour refusing to drop me off until I told him who I liked, thinking I had a crush on Joseph. I just told him that it wasn't the right time yet, which bugged him, but he accepted it. New Years Eve 2009, I had a big party at my house. We were all downstairs watching Up, and someone started a pillow fight. Conveniently, one of the pillows landed across our laps, and within minutes of the movie starting, Tucker started playing with my pinky. My heart went crazy, & I thought I would explode with happiness when he finally grabbed my hand. Needless to say, I didn't pay much attention to the movie that night.
And then nothing for 3 months. Talk about frustrating.
But honestly, it was a bit of a tricky situation. With such a solid, deep, wonderful friendship at risk, introducing stronger feelings was a little scary because if something went wrong,
we'd both crash and burn hard.
Finally, with some encouragement from his mom (thank you, Jenny!), Tucker asked me to Senior Prom. That's an entirely different story for a later day, but Tucker recently told me that it was then that his mindset changed from "Karli's a girl" to "Karli's my girl." He kissed me on the forehead outside my hotel room overlooking San Francisco Bay a week later, and when Prom finally rolled around, he surprised me at the end of the night with 2 songs he'd written for me on his guitar - the first two I didn't get to preview for him. :)
Life after that was awesome. We graduated & spent a few weeks together before Tucker moved up to BYU early in June for summer term, and I surprised him 2 weeks early in August. Between work schedules, we spent every moment we could together. As school approached, Tucker started acting a little funny. I knew something was on his mind, but I trusted that he would just talk about it when he got it all sorted through his head.
One mid afternoon, we went for a walk. The sun was merciless with not even a slight breeze to give relief. I could tell something was bothering him. We walked for 10 minutes without even saying a word, not holding hands. We finally sat down in the shade. More silence. Finally, after at least 5 more minutes, Tucker whispered, "I hate not knowing what to say.....especially when something needs to be said."
And I knew.
We were breaking up.
Essentially, we never expected to end up in a relationship before his mission. Tucker needed to focus on preparing for that, and adding a girlfriend to the mix wasn't going to help anything.
I knew everything he was saying was true, but that didn't make it hurt any less.
We talked through it and established all sorts of rules. We needed to make new friends and branch out from each other. We needed to focus on school. We needed to limit our time with each other, including texting and phone calls. We were pretty thorough. And it was tough.
For a long time, the only thing that brought me any sort of comfort was that I knew Tucker was following the Spirit and acting through diligent prayer. And because of that, I knew I could trust his judgment.
But within just a couple months, I began to see the silver lining and the tender mercies of the Lord confirming that this was what we needed to do. Our friendship deepened, and we remained solid best friends. We still talked, and even though we spent less time together, Tucker showed me through small and simple things that he still cared. I sometimes wished we could be more, but I realized how incredibly blessed I was to have that guy as my best friend, and that even if that's all it ever was for life, I would still be so blessed.
 |
| Aida 2008 |
and that if I could do that, things would have a chance of working out.
Kind of a lot for a 14 year old to swallow.
High school began, along with quite a few years of repressing feelings from my best bud. We spent a lot of time together. We learned to drive in the same purple PT cruiser and black jeep with the sticky brakes. We went to football games and friends' parties on the weekends. We did summer musicals in the community together. We toured Austria and San Francisco with our choir. Tucker taught himself how to play the guitar and began writing songs, which proved quite useful wooing nice, pretty girls that he liked. And guess who got to preview the songs to make sure they weren't too cheesy? Yours truly. :) Sometimes I convinced myself I was crazy. There was no way I could actually know things would work out someday, right? I tried to force myself to have crushes on other guys to distract myself, but then Tucker would go and do something cute, and I'd be lost again. Poor Joseph was my sunshine through all of it. I vented to him about Tucker, & he just encouraged me & told me I wasn't crazy. & he vowed that if Tucker got home from his mission and still didn't know how I felt, then he'd tell him for me. In December 2007, Tucker staked his claim to be my first date & took me out 6 months later on the day I turned 16.
We also went to our first high-school dance together, which just encouraged everyone else who believed we were meant to be.
Honestly though, high school was a blast (except for most of junior year, which was just hard & exhausting in every way). We have the best group of friends in the whole world, and senior year especially was just a ton of fun with everyone. That was also the year that Tucker began to catch on. He went through a bit of a rough time, and I was always just the best friend. He once drove me around my neighborhood for an hour refusing to drop me off until I told him who I liked, thinking I had a crush on Joseph. I just told him that it wasn't the right time yet, which bugged him, but he accepted it. New Years Eve 2009, I had a big party at my house. We were all downstairs watching Up, and someone started a pillow fight. Conveniently, one of the pillows landed across our laps, and within minutes of the movie starting, Tucker started playing with my pinky. My heart went crazy, & I thought I would explode with happiness when he finally grabbed my hand. Needless to say, I didn't pay much attention to the movie that night.
And then nothing for 3 months. Talk about frustrating.
But honestly, it was a bit of a tricky situation. With such a solid, deep, wonderful friendship at risk, introducing stronger feelings was a little scary because if something went wrong,
we'd both crash and burn hard.
Finally, with some encouragement from his mom (thank you, Jenny!), Tucker asked me to Senior Prom. That's an entirely different story for a later day, but Tucker recently told me that it was then that his mindset changed from "Karli's a girl" to "Karli's my girl." He kissed me on the forehead outside my hotel room overlooking San Francisco Bay a week later, and when Prom finally rolled around, he surprised me at the end of the night with 2 songs he'd written for me on his guitar - the first two I didn't get to preview for him. :)
Life after that was awesome. We graduated & spent a few weeks together before Tucker moved up to BYU early in June for summer term, and I surprised him 2 weeks early in August. Between work schedules, we spent every moment we could together. As school approached, Tucker started acting a little funny. I knew something was on his mind, but I trusted that he would just talk about it when he got it all sorted through his head.
One mid afternoon, we went for a walk. The sun was merciless with not even a slight breeze to give relief. I could tell something was bothering him. We walked for 10 minutes without even saying a word, not holding hands. We finally sat down in the shade. More silence. Finally, after at least 5 more minutes, Tucker whispered, "I hate not knowing what to say.....especially when something needs to be said."
And I knew.
We were breaking up.
Essentially, we never expected to end up in a relationship before his mission. Tucker needed to focus on preparing for that, and adding a girlfriend to the mix wasn't going to help anything.
I knew everything he was saying was true, but that didn't make it hurt any less.
We talked through it and established all sorts of rules. We needed to make new friends and branch out from each other. We needed to focus on school. We needed to limit our time with each other, including texting and phone calls. We were pretty thorough. And it was tough.
For a long time, the only thing that brought me any sort of comfort was that I knew Tucker was following the Spirit and acting through diligent prayer. And because of that, I knew I could trust his judgment.
But within just a couple months, I began to see the silver lining and the tender mercies of the Lord confirming that this was what we needed to do. Our friendship deepened, and we remained solid best friends. We still talked, and even though we spent less time together, Tucker showed me through small and simple things that he still cared. I sometimes wished we could be more, but I realized how incredibly blessed I was to have that guy as my best friend, and that even if that's all it ever was for life, I would still be so blessed.
Chapter Two: Two Years
<333 uhhhh, keep this coming, please!
ReplyDeleteEverything about this is perfect. I didn't stop smiling the entire time I read it. SO HAPPY for you two!!!!
ReplyDeleteGosh. I wonder if they'll end up together!
ReplyDeleteReady for chapter two. How are things across the pond? Getting use to the time change yet?
ReplyDeleteI love this part of the story! I only got to be around for Chapter 2 so this is wonderful to hear! Thanks for sharing and congratulations!!!!!!
ReplyDelete