Young Love Reunited

I loved making wedding rings for this beautiful couple. Enjoy their story, a testament to the true connections that bring us back together no matter the time or distance.

"Caleb and I met in middle school, way back in 2008. He sat in the front of our 8th grade Language Arts class surrounded by several of his guy friends, and I sat in the back of the classroom. I had a crush on him and, as a typical preteen girl would do, I tried to come up with ways to get him to notice me. Caleb, as a typical preteen boy, had no idea who I was, and was much more concerned with soccer, his friends, and lunchtime than which girls liked him and which ones didn't.

I remember hanging back while my 8th-grade class went to the cafeteria for lunch one day. I walked up to our teacher's desk and told her that I was having trouble hearing her and seeing the board in the back of the classroom. Because I was a bit of a teacher's pet, she immediately gasped and said, "Oh my Gosh, Maria, of course you can move seats! I'm so sorry your experience in class hasn't been great. You can choose whichever seat you'd like!" Without hesitation, I pointed to the seat directly next to Caleb's.

I believe, to this day, our teacher knew I had a crush on him. She knew that I was only asking to move seats so that I could get the attention of a boy I liked. She smiled and said, "Okay, Maria, your seat will be changed when everyone comes back from lunch."

You can probably predict the rest. Caleb and his guy friends were not thrilled AT ALL that the seating chart had been rearranged, but Caleb and I ended up becoming friends. I noticed immediately that he was not like other teenage boys. Caleb, even as a teenager, was kind and funny, but not crude; he loved the outdoors and animals and he liked simple, beautiful things. He could, even back then, make me laugh at the drop of a hat. He was different, and I knew it almost instantly.

Caleb and I dated on and off in 9th and 10th grade. We ended up going to completely different parts of the country for college, and we drifted apart. He dated other girls in college and I dated other guys. We would meet back up around the holidays, on break from college, but it was always at a party with large groups of people, so we didn't connect deeply.

The real shift happened again three years ago when Caleb and I had both moved back to the mid-Atlantic for graduate school. I knew he was back in the Middletown area and I texted him to ask if he wanted to meet at Dan's Taphouse in Boonsboro for dinner to catch up. Years had passed since he and I sat at a dinner table together, but it was like no time had gone by at all. We stayed at the restaurant that night until they closed, and when we finally parted we both realized that there was something special. We had no idea where our journey would lead us that night, driving away from the restaurant; we started to meet up more and more regularly, Caleb would attend family functions with me and I would spend time with his family. We started to take road trips and vacations together, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I would like to think that God or the universe would have found another way to cross our paths if our 8th-grade teacher had not allowed that seat change. Caleb and I are a team; we make all decisions together, and we are great communicators. In this time of COVID-19 quarantines, with rising anxiety, stress, and divorce rates, Caleb and I have realized we are in it for the long haul. If we can survive months of quarantine and working from home, we can survive anything!"

-Maria