How We Met
Trace and I didn’t go to the same high school and even though he was a year older than me, we knew of each other since our schools were rivals. We had never actually met, but I had always thought he was so cute!
After I graduated high school, I moved to Knoxville, TN for college at The University of Tennessee. (Trace stayed at home and went to Austin Peay for college). I would come home every now and then to see family and friends. One weekend I came home me and one of my best friends, Kali, who graduated high school with Trace were planning to go to a party that night to celebrate her birthday. As I was driving to Nashville she called and we were planning the night. Before she got off the phone she said “oh yeah, guess who’s coming tonight?” And I asked “who?” She replied “TRACE!!!!” She knew how cute I thought he was and how excited I would be. I was ecstatic and I had never even spoke a word to him before!
When I got there I was looking for him and making myself aware of when he was around. I’m way too shy of a person so we didn’t speak the entire night even though I wanted to so badly. I told Kali later in the night again how cute he was. The night ended and that was that.
The next day I had to drive back to Knoxville for school. On the way Kali calls me and we were talking about the night and she proceeds to tell me and I quote “I told trace how much you loved him and gave him your number to text you”. WHAT!!!! I was so embarrassed but at the same time very excited for him to text me. The whole day went by and nothing from him… It took him almost 12 hours to finally text me and he claims it’s because he was “sooo nervous”. We text back and forth for almost a month before going on our first date and meeting in person! I even skipped my freshman year spring break to go home and hang out with him! He took me to The Cheesecake Factory and now we go to there every March 11th as an anniversary of our first date.
How They Asked
I was coming home from Knoxville expecting to go somewhere nice to eat because Trace wanted to celebrate my acceptance into pharmacy school. Throughout the week prior, he had asked me where I wanted to go, but later decided he would choose and surprise me instead. The day before I was coming home he asked me what time I thought I would get there so he could make reservations. He then told me that I was going to have to meet him because if I came all the way home “we would be late for our reservation”. He told me once I got in the car he would tell me where we were going to eat. So we agreed to meet at a gas station and once I got there I changed out of my scrubs from work and as soon as we got in the car I asked him where we were going (I’m STARVING at this point). He said “we’re going home” and I’m like “WE’RE GOING HOME?!”. Like I said… I was starving. So hungryI had called him and asked him to bring me RITZ crackers for the car ride to where we were eating lol. Anyway, he says “yeah we’re going home.” I’m dumbfounded. I ask him why we were going home and why he made me meet him and change clothes in a gas station. He said he bought furniture and wanted to surprise me (because we still have yet to buy furniture for our house that we bought back in July). So I am excited about this furniture!!!! I asked him about the furniture the entire 20 minute drive home. I was also a little concerned that he bought furniture without even asking me for permission/my opinion, but I was too excited to care. As we’re about to pull into the driveway, he tells me to close my eyes and made me put on a blindfold. I said “… why?” His response was he wanted to see my reaction when I saw the furniture… I told him my reaction would be the same with or without a blindfold on but he insisted so I did. I couldn’t see ANYTHING! It was also dark outside and I had on heels so that didn’t help. We got out of the car and he walked me inside where I could hear “The Rest of Our Lives” by Tim McGraw and Faith Hill playing. The first thing I thought when I heard the music was that he had made dinner at home and set it up all fancy but nope… he got down on one knee in a heart shaped out of candles and rose petals. I couldn’t do anything but cry happy tears. He had to get up and walk over to me because I couldn’t move.
Once I collected myself and said yes, he told me my mom had made us dinner and we would go see my parents after we stopped to see his since his parents live directly behind us. As we’re pulling up to his parents house, there were a bunch of cars and I assumed his brother had some friends over until I saw my parents vehicle in the driveway. That’s when I began to recognize other cars and realized most of our friends and family were there to celebrate with us! Again, I started to cry. I cried a lot of happy tears throughout the night, took so many photos, and had so much fun! The best part is that I completely forgot how hungry I was!
