I met Kristin Marie Ashley on Halloween night, 1998 at an on-campus party of then Longwood College (now university) in Farmville, VA. I was brought to the party by my friend Charles who was a commuter student at the school. There was quite a few people at the party and a funk band on stage was pumping out Parliament tunes. While there we met up with a female friend of Charles, who had a friend of her's in tow. This friend was Kristin. I remember my first impression was that she was gorgeous and had a killer smile. I also remember being a little nervous to talk to her. I had just turned 18 a few days before and here I am talking to a college girl. Granted she's only a year older than me, but she was there at college and I was merely some "townie" (even though I wasn't from Farmville, but farther to the south in Keysville) who had just graduated from high school earlier that year. Most of the rest of that night is a blur, but I do remember sitting next to and talking with her later that evening after a large group of us ended up hanging out in a cemetery after the party.
As luck would have it I would see her quite a bit over the next few months. At the time though it was because she had started dating my friend Charles (he's still a very good friend to the both of us). None the less, we always enjoyed talking when we did see each other. As fate would have it, Kristin wasn't the only person Charles was dating at the time and after a few short months, Kristin found herself single again. At this time though I was now dating another Longwood student, but always enjoyed running into Kristin here and there. My time left in VA was also running short as I would soon be heading to Air Force basic training in the spring (1999). I did enjoy my first kiss Kristin before I left though. I'll never forget that night. :)
So basic training and tech school came and went and again. While home on leave after tech school, and before leaving for Okinawa, Kristin was one of the first people I went to visit. Actually saw her a couple of times during those two weeks. 2 years in Japan went by and we stayed in touch off and on during that time over the net. Taking some vacation time between Japan and my next assignment in NJ I again hung out with her a few times. It was during this time that I started thinking about how much I really enjoyed being around her. It was not meant to be yet and a few months after getting stationed in NJ, I found myself dating a girl up there. Kristin and I kept in touch online though off and on throughout that year. Around the end of 2002 we probably stopped chatting for a bit as I got ready to head to Korea in early 2003.
The real start towards our marriage came in the end of 2003, beginning of 2004 when we started talking online again. It was during this time when that I began to realize that through all the years gone by , here had been this wonderful woman, right under my nose. The more we talked, the more I started to feel that this might truly be the person I'm supposed to be with. So one day I decided it was now or never and asked if she thought we should give each other a serious chance. To my extreme happiness, she said yes. I also made it very clear to her that I was not going to be dating her simply to date her, but that it would be working towards something serious. I think the closer we got to my leaving Korea, the more I realized that she was, in fact the one I was supposed to be with. I knew even before we started dating that I was going to ask her to marry me, but knew it was best not to rush into anything, regardless of thinking it was meant to be.
Her and I pretty much agree that the first day I met up with her in VA while I was home on leave in February 2004 after Korea was the start of our dating. The next year in 2005 I proposed to her at the Carraba's Italian restaurant in Columbia, SC after an engagement ring managed to come as the topper to a piece of cheesecake for dessert. We were married that next year and the rest, as they say, is history.
I love you Kristin Warshaw. Very truly and very simply. Now, always and forever.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Current song playing: "Baal T'shuvah" by Michael Hedges
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