Years of having a formal blog, and yet I have never formally introduced Shawn or ever shared a glimpse into our story. If you have followed me on social media then you most likely already know about him a bit, but if not I figured if any time, our eight year anniversary is the perfect time to tell our story and brag on him a bit.

Our love story is definitely far from the whole love at first sight scenario. Shawn and I went to high school together, but never even know each other existed until the day he stumbled into a friends backyard where I was already hanging out. It took him a couple months of texting me for me to finally acknowledge I could have a crush. Now before this I had never had a real boyfriend. Not even in the slightest. I think the closest thing I had to a relationship was a guy I had a crush on and texted for like two weeks. So the idea of a relationship terrified me. I watched so many others around me have their hearts broken and I wasn’t ready for that.

If you know Shawn than you know he has a very specific sense of humor. He is sarcastic and blunt and he does not hold back on how it is. If he has an opinion you better guess he would say it. We “talked” for months and months until he finally made me fall for him. I think I was so hesitant to date him because I knew I was actually feeling something and that this could result in heartbreak like I had seen so many times before. That summer after we first met was spent attached at the hip. I can thank my mom for all the gas money she spent driving 15 year old me to hang out with him and our friends on the lake every day. Most days were spent in the sun, on the lake or just binge watching tv together and talking. On July 27th he told me he loved me for the first time and on July 28th (after friends pressured him) he asked me out… on a tube in the middle of the lake. The moment after I said yes to being his girlfriend we fell off the tube like skipping stones.

We were only 15 so I figured he was going to be my first love, and first heartbreak. I figured I was just waiting my turn. I mean high school sweethearts and first loves lasting didn’t exist right? We always swore we would never be the ones to end things, but I was still always waiting. The day he left for senior week I thought this was it. The day he left for college I literally cried for like 12 hours thinking this was the end. College was rough. Being on opposite schedules, long distance and only seeing each other every other month was really hard on our relationship. There were some disagreements, but nothing we couldn’t make it through. Every time I thought this was the end he proved me wrong. Time and time again he reassured me we would be ok.

Today we are celebrating eight years since the day he asked me to be his. EIGHT YEARS. In the past eight years we have gone through high school, college, starting a business, law school, moving in together and starting our life. We have gone from 15 year olds who thought we knew what love was to 23 year olds who figured it out by each others sides. We have endured some of the highest highs and some of the deepest, darkest lows and every time I became more and more grateful for him.

Shawn is sarcastic, blunt and he loves to push my buttons. He is smart, so so smart, and stubborn. His version of a good time is winning an argument or proving a point (now you probably understand why he is studying to be a lawyer). But he is kind to me, treats me like a queen and has always provided for me. He has proved me wrong in every single one of my insecure stages and continues to impress me every single day (even if it’s just with his cooking or video game skills). He links me to songs that remind him of me and he doesn’t fight me when I cook or push eating orange chicken once a week because it’s my favorite meal. He has saved me from the darkest parts of myself and pushed the better parts forward to the surface.

He isn’t or will never be the guy who shows me off on social media (in fact he doesn’t even have social media). And he isn’t much of a PDA man, but he loves me regardless of who else knows it. He’s my warm welcome home after every work day, shoot or long vacation. He pushes me and continues to push me to be a better version of myself and I just always hope he thinks of me as doing the same for him.

I am not going to write this post and pretend we are perfect, because we are far from perfect together. We fight over the littlest of things and I ignore him when I’m mad. We sometimes choose our jobs or school over each other without even realizing it. We bottle things up in hopes of saving a disagreement, just to have it all unfold later down the line. We are human.

But our bond is one that could never be replaced. We have not only been dating for eight years, but we have grown up together, experience life’s first together and without the ring have set up our future together. We talk about our future and reminisce on our past and all the memories we’ve created together. He’s my absolute best friend to go through life with and the one who can make even the worse things into a laughing matter. Most importantly he taught me to say “yes” to things that scare me because sometimes those things can turn into the greatest blessing life has ever given you.

These past eight years would have never amounted to as great as they were without him. And I can’t wait to see what the next 80 are like by his side.