Seth + Beth Part 3: Dating at a Distance

this is part three of the Love Series (or our love story) 

Part 1: Young Love

Part 2: High School Heartbreakers

Part 3:

The day that I left for school I remember crying in my foyer as Seth so sweetly handed me a half dollar and shared an analogy of both of us carrying around a half dollar....I honestly don't remember, but it was cute, it made me cry, and I still have that half dollar so it must have been good!

Dating in college was hard, but maybe not in the way we expected. I loved my college, but of course like many Christian universities there were numerous rules and dating was an extremely awkward thing. I hated when Seth would come to visit because there was no where to go, everyone was awkward, and it just was never fun. I can probably count on my hands the amount of times that Seth came to visit me at school during those 4 years. So I usually went home 1-2 of the weekends in a month. 

I still remember my first "Ring Down". At Taylor, the girl's dorms have numerous traditions and one of the most popular is when one gets engaged. The PAs (similar to an RA) run through the hall with pots and pans screaming "Ring Down" and everyone runs out of their rooms and sits in the middle of the hall singing "Going to the chapel" and passing a candle with a ring tied to it. When the candle gets to the lucky girl she bows out the candle, everyone screams, and she tells the story of the engagement. For some reason it really clicked during that first ringdown that my relationship could get so serious that I could really marry this kid (and hopefully get engaged and have my own ringdown!) But I remember the day that it clicked that our relationship was just more serious than it was in high school. We had been intentional about our relationship from the start and he was lining up with what I wanted in a man, but for some reason getting married seemed obtainable. 

We talked on the phone a few times a week and we visited on the weekends. I remember times of frustration, lack of communication, and jealousy but for the most part we handled the ups and downs of long distance relationships smoothly. We were always active in the things going around us, busy, and wanted to be present where we were. 

God really shaped our hearts and grew our love for each other. I was presented with numerous opportunites that didn't exactly bring us together, but that Seth selflessly supported. Numerous summers were spent away from home. Between my Sophomore and Junior year I spent most of the summer in Alaska as a camp counselor, where our only form of communication was 30 minutes on a pay phone once a week and letters. 

(the bench where I sat all summer to talk to family on the phone)

 (and the view from the bench!)

(a hike with Lake Clark and the camp in the background)

Then that next summer Seth supported me in a "soul searching" of sorts to live with my grandmother in Arizona. He drove me out at the beginning of the summer and then we spent the rest of the summer chatting with skype and over the phone. Over that summer we started our conversations about marriage. The topic came up throughout our relationship, but as my Senior year in college was quickly approaching we were starting to talk about some sort of timeline. It was probably one of the hardest summers for our relationship, but I'd say we came out strong.