By Austin Moore
Well it was a chase for sure! At the time, a good friend of mine Matt Berard was a T.A. for her freshmen seminar class. I had asked him to scope out the new freshman girls ;) He had mentioned one that was cute and wanted to get married in two years. Guess who that was? You guessed it, the lovely Jacki Taylor. I had a class with Jacki in school and had only met her once at a Barn Party we both went to. On this particular occasion, I mentioned to another good freind of mine, Beau St. Peter, that I thought Jacki was cute. He immediately said, "she's got a boy friend." "Dang," I thought.
Soon after, I began to talk to her and learned one day of her recent break up and delicate state because of it. Being the nice guy I am ;) I talked with her about it and before we knew it, we began to develop a friendship. For reasons I didn't understand at the time, I spent hours pouring encouragement into her in her time of need. I already thought she was beautiful and a very wonderful girl, but I soon began to realize that although she needed a friend right now, I wanted more. However, I understood being her friend was what she needed, and I didn't want to take advantage of that, so her friend I was. Little did she know, she would be mine in due time ;)
Over the course of a few months, Jacki came out of her sadness and healed. We had begun to spend every free moment we had with each other, and I just couldn't get enough of her! I then decided I should be honest about my intentions and feelings, so I proceeded to tell her about them and learned to my great relief and happiness that she had feelings for me too! Over the next few months, I began to show her my feelings and prove myself to her. It didn't take long after that, and I had won her over ;)
We now enjoy a wonder relationship and I love her dearly. It was a long and difficult road, but I would do it all over again :)
We are happily engaged and busy planning our wedding!
