How to Lose a Guy

I have been thinking a lot about how Adam and I fell in love. Maybe it's Valentine's Day coming up, I don't know, but it's been on my mind lately. I love our love story.

Adam and I met at camp. Our romance was born on a sunny morning walk in mid-July. Awww...so sweet. And it was sweet. Adam was intent on wooing me.

I wish I could say I made it easy for him, but I did a few things early on that may not fit into the typical "what to do when you want a guy to fall in love with you" rule book. It's not that I was trying to scare him away, but I wanted someone who was serious about me, not the idea of me. That and maybe I just wasn't really thinking.

Mistake #1: Throwing out the L-word.
A week or two after our initial morning walk, Adam and I had a conversation that went, in a nutshell, like this:
Me: Can I tell you something that's really important to me?
Adam: Sure.
Me: If you ever tell me you love me, you better have a ring in your hand.
Adam: Uh...uh...ok...
It's a no-brainer that this conversation was a bit premature. Granted, I had recently put the pieces of my heart back together, but still. I probably should have waited until we had had the DTR and established boyfriend/girlfriend status before throwing in the L-word. And mentioning a ring. Yikes.

Mistake #2: Leaving the country for 3 weeks.
Living at camp means living in isolation from the outside world. There is no internet or phone, so the fact that I left camp a month before Adam was going to put our brand new relationship to the test anyway, but then I left the country. Before heading off for the summer, and before meeting Adam, I had purchased a plane ticket to India where I was going to spend two weeks with a friend. On the way back, I was stopping in Europe for a week with another friend. Sure all the plans had been made before I knew I would have a new romance on my hands, but weeks with no communication isn't really the best way to start off. On the other hand, three weeks apart gave us time to decide if we really did like each other.

Mistake #3: Taking a trip to Europe with another guy.
This was a really bad move in regard to my budding relationship. I don't regret the trip at all. It was a lot of fun. I explored the streets of Rome, ate dinner in France, and wandered through a German castle. Like I said before, this trip had been planned before I met Adam, but what made this leg of the journey more tricky was that I was visiting a guy-friend. He was in the Army and stationed in Germany at the time. We met at our parents' church and had been writing letters for the past two years. I know, it sounds like there was some sort of something there, but there wasn't. We were really just friends. Try explaining that to the man who is trying to win your heart, though. We're talking new relationship murder here.

Mistake #4: Getting my nose pierced.
I had wanted my nose pierced for YEARS and, after going to India, was even more antsy for a little sparkle on my nose. It was time to take the plunge! So I did. And it was awesome! Getting your nose pierced means different things to different people. I'm more of a free-spirit than Adam, so when I got back and saw him for the first time, he was, let's say, hesitant about it. He didn't say he hated it, but he definitely didn't say he liked it either. I think he was surprised that I would do such a thing. I wasn't interested in his approval, though, because I liked it. So, not only did I get a surprise piercing, but I was acting defiantly independent about it. Probably not what Adam was expecting from the girl he met at camp.

Four potential relationship deal-breakers. I was definitely not making it easy for him, but thankfully, Adam wasn't scared away. He kept wooing and I eventually gave him my heart. I'm so glad my blunders didn't send him running for the hills because I can't imagine being married to anyone else. He's my perfect complement and will forever be the love of my life. Gush, gush, gush, ooey gooey, sticky sweet...blame it on Valentine's Day.