I was young when I knew that I wanted to fall in love. Everyone has dreams, whether it’s to fly, or become a vet. For me, I wanted love, it was set in stone. Growing up I didn’t see my mom in love. I saw her surviving, and living off of a relationship that benefited us at the time, but there were ups and downs. I didn’t grow up with my mom and dad together. I grew up with my mom. So, let’s get into why love was so important to me, and what it means for me now. 

“Love,” what is it? Some think love is buying you chocolate, or bringing you on fancy dinner dates and buying jewelry to keep you happy (don’t get me wrong, I love jewelry) but there’s much more to love than what meets the eye.

Let me start with a story, this is a story of a girl, who you’ll know quite well, me. I was five years old when I decided I wanted to fall in love. I was swinging on a rope swing that we had tied to a tree with a chair cushion so it hurt less, it was mid-summer, July I would say, and this little boy came running up to me. He was shy, but I was not. I decided I was going to make this boy my friend (I didn’t have many friends). He asked if he could play with me, and of course, I said yes. We ran around for hours, playing with squirty guns, hide and seek, and even pushing each other on the swing. I was a sassy kid, so I made sure he knew it (I still am). (Picture of us on the swing. If you haven’t guessed who yet, don’t worry, I’ll tell you.)

Ever since then, we have been friends, although I didn’t know it, I was hooked. He eventually left to go back to South Carolina, but two years later he came back, for good this time! The funny thing is, at five-years-old you’re brutally honest, and you don’t care about what you say, so when I found out he was moving here, even better, next door to me! I made a pack with my step-dad at the time that he would be my “Summer boyfriend” (I had no idea what a boyfriend was).

While he was in South Carolina, my mom and his mom were friends on Facebook, so we would use their Facebooks to communicate back and forth. When I lost my first tooth, I ran to my mom and told her I wanted to ‘Facebook Caleb’ (Oh! There it is, the boy who made me believe in love). She laughed but let me do it. An hour later, she got a notification that ‘Katie Wilson commented’ on her post, she said ‘Ohhh, did the tooth fairy come!!’ ‘Caleb wanted me to put that on!’ I was the happiest little kid ever. After that we just were living through Facebook, until I got the news he was going to be living next to us. So, I decided that when they got there I would be playing outside and he would come and play with me. But they didn’t get in until late and I had to be in the house when the street lights came on. At least I would see him at school. All my friends thought I was making him up, so I knew I had to prove them wrong (I was eight). 

He came in the next day and already girls in my grade fawned over him, but he was mine, even if he didn’t know it yet. After school we played outside in my driveway/yard. My grandma owned the business they lived above, so we played everywhere. Then I made the big move, I asked if he wanted to come over for dinner, and he did. The rest of that year is kind of a blur. Let’s get to when we were 10, oh that’s when I got the nerve to tell him I liked him. However, we’re not there yet.

Summer of 2019, Caleb and I would go to his house during the day and I would play with his little sister, and watch him play his video games (I knew NOTHING about them). At around dinner time we would go to my house and watch scary movies on his laptop, and when he had to go home we begged for another 10 minutes, and we got it. My mom was like his second mom. She dyed his hair, they had long talks, and he respected her (that’s HUGE). So, one day I got the courage to tell him I liked him, that same day, his family packed up and left. After that we didn’t talk for five years. During those five years I felt like I was missing a part of me, and I didn’t know why. Caleb was a huge part of my adolescence and it quickly became a memory, and I was not prepared for that. 

Summer of 2023 (it’s always the summer) his mom and my mom got back in contact so they planned a beach day (I was so nervous). That day I made it my mission to talk to him, and I did. We started talking again and my heart felt full. He began acting like we saw each other a week ago, it was amazing. Caleb decided he wanted to throw me around and play chicken with him and his sister and her boyfriend, Ferd. I didn’t think that he would even talk to me, but that night when I went home, I got a message from him on Snapchat. After that, the whole summer he and I were up until 2-3am talking about life, and what we missed while we had no contact, and it felt like my whole life made sense. That feeling I had for the past five years, completely went away.

I knew that he was the one for me, so freshman year, the seating chart had him sitting right next to me in math class (ohhhh boy), he would make fun of me, but in a way I knew was joking. My friend would tell me after class that he liked me, but I didn’t buy it. Nobody knew but that summer I had caught feelings for him all over again, and with him sitting right next to me it was horrible to hide. January 8th, 10:30pm, I had decided I was going to tell him because he was giving me all the right signals and he even told my friends he would ‘consider it.’ So the biggest move yet, I asked ‘Was what Josh E said today in gym class true? Because if it is, I have something I need to tell you, but if not we can forget this happened.’ I waited a good minute before he said, ‘Oh boy, well yes, it is true, I was going to tell you tonight but you beat me to it.’ My mouth genuinely collapsed and I called my friend right away, I was shaking in a way I have never experienced before in my life. That night we talked about if we wanted it to be official and he eventually asked me if he could be my boyfriend, and of course, I said yes. I swear I could hear little me jumping and screaming with joy, but I tried my best to stay calm.

We have been together now for 2 years and 3 months as of Wednesday, April 8th, and I couldn’t be more happy. He has shown me excitement, adventure, joy, trust, understanding and realness, that is more than I have ever gotten. We are thriving, and it takes lots of work, but it is easy if you love someone with your full heart and pure intentions. I learned from a very early age that I wanted an honest and true relationship. I learned from my mom, I saw how she got treated and how I was treated, and I didn’t want that for myself. Now, 2 years later, I see that I can have that. We talk about the future and everything in between. I cannot stress enough how important communication and being there for each other is in a relationship. Getting mad over the little things, eventually makes you resent the person, so talk about it, it’s better to have a hard conversation then lose the person you let in fully. It’s not about the situation, it’s about how you handle it. We’ve had a few arguments, but we have never once stopped loving each other, and ignored each other. 

So what’s the moral of my story? Fall in love, be happy, experience anything you can, and don’t regret a second of it. You are who you are, and someone will love you for exactly that. Find your person, take the risk and ask them out, it’s never too late. I mean I waited ten years for a boy, if that tells you anything it should tell you that, if you want something and you wait long enough it will come to you.