Our story is nothing monumental. It’s not a storybook romance, and it definitely would never make it to the big screen. Our story may be lost through the years and our love may be easily forgotten by others, but it changed my life: and the boy I fell in love with turned my whole world upside down.
I first met Kevin shortly after I moved to Charlotte in 2009 on a Tuesday night at CharlotteOne. I went with my friend, Whitney, and her younger brother and his friend drove up from Asheboro to see Donald Miller speak that evening. It definitely wasn’t love at first sight, but I immediately felt a strange connection to this boy in a plaid shirt and skinny jeans, who I barely said a word to that whole night.
Over the next coming months, I became really good friends with Whitney. Her brother would come up every now and then to visit for the night or for the weekend, so I occasionally saw him. The funny thing is that we really never said much to each other at all, but I was always so aware of his presence. I remember eating dinner one night with a ton of friends while he was in town, and the whole time all I could think about was how he was at the other end of the table and how I could capture his attention! I hardly knew him, but he had made such an impression on me. He was funny, and confident and absolutely adorable.
One of my favorite memories of those in between stages was once when we were leaving downtown and I was heading the other direction on the opposite side of the street, I jokingly yelled to him that he needed to hug me goodbye; so we both ran into the middle of the road and he lifted me up in a hug. He said, “You’re really cute” – and I was hooked.
I’m not sure if I ever really thought something would happen between us. He lived in another town, we dated other people, and he was my best friend’s younger brother. Plus, I had no idea if he was at all interested! But, secretly, I was. Sometimes I would even joke to Whitney, “I’m going to marry Kevin some day.”
Fast forward to December 2010; Kevin had just auditioned and received an offer to play guitar at my church here in Charlotte. Whitney and I’s office Christmas party happened to be on the weekend he was in town playing so he ended up coming with us. Out of the middle of nowhere standing with me and Whitney and another friend from work, he blurts out “Meagan, I would like to take you out sometime.” And the rest was history. Well there was obviously more to it than that, but that was the beginning.
In a Reader’s Digest version of the highlights: we started dating; we became “official” in March, had our first kiss, went on a trip to Hartsville, SC in the summer where I fell head over heels for him; and then a year later on March 6th, he asked me a question that would forever change everything. And I said yes.
I don’t think I could imagine my life without Kevin. It feels like I have known him forever, but it still feels so new at the same time. I have learned so much from him about myself, about life, about relationships, about God, about love.
He taught me that love was not just a feeling, that it was a choice. A choice to wake up every morning and choose to love that person every day no matter what challenges, what heartaches, what tests we are put through. I choose that.
I know choosing that won’t be easy. It will be flawed, and we will falter, and we will struggle sometimes. But I can't wait to spend the rest of my life choosing that with Kevin.
Our love and our story may be simple and nowhere close to perfect, but it is mad and it is deep, and it is true.
