In the words of Jason Mraz, I am "lucky to be in love with my best friend."
My experience at Loyola gave me a chance to move away from home and experience college life in a new city, brought me to Ireland where I travelled to seven other countries, enabled me join organizations and clubs that interested me, initated friendships that will last for years, and - best of all - had introduced me to what it really is like to love someone.
Tom and I met junior year when we had a selling class together. He sat a few rows from me. It must have been opposite day on our first day of class when you choose your seat for the semester, because he was in the front of the row (appearring to be very studious) and I was in the back of my row (appearing not-so-studious) haha. After a week or so, we both were walking back to our apartment when we saw our mutal friend, Frank, who actually introduced us. We then realized that we lived a few floors from each other in the apartment building - so the liklihood of us walking back together got much greater! :)
Slowly but surely we got to know each other through our walks and talks after class. The more we talked, the less it seemed we had in common.
Me: "I hate red meat."
Tom: "I love red meat."
Me: "My favorite ice cream flavor is mint chocolate chip."
Tom: "I will eat anything but mint chocolate chip."
Me: "I love whiskey - Jameson and I are best friends."
Tom: "Whiskey makes me want to die."
Me: "I fall asleep within the first 30 min of a movie, 85% of the time."
Tom: "I can stay up and watch movies all night."
Me: "My poor Irish skin burns to a crisp every summer."
Tom: "I'm 100% Italian and have never used sun screen."
Me: "I love the summer when my hair gets blonder."
Tom: "I tend to like brunnettes." (he tries to convince me to dye my hair to this day...haha)
You name it, we were opposite on it! Nevertheless, we got along very well and I thought (well, still very much think!) that he was so funny! He has been making me laugh for years now!
On the night of my 21st birthday, I saw Tom out. I remember seeing him from across the bar when I first got there and then we found each other later. We had a great time dancing that night and I remember having such a great time that year on my birthday.
A few months later on the night of my Dad's first brain surgery, I asked Tom if he would like to hang out - so I could occupy my thoughts elsewhere as I waited to hear how the surgery went. (He and all of Loyola knew about my Dad being sick as my Dad and I spoke at the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life Event the previous year.) Tom said he would like to hang out that night and we watched The Hurricane. Surprisingly, I stayed up to watch the whole movie - so instantly I knew that Tom was someone who was different because I honest to God fall asleep all the time haha. He also made me feel better on one of the toughest days of my life and that too made me realize that he was someone special.
We became closer as the semester went on and talked a lot over the summer and got to know each even more during my last semester of school. We went to dinner at my favorite restaurant, Ryan's Daughter and I remember really having a great time. Tom stood in line to get tickets to the annual Christmas Concert given by our accapella singing groups, The Chimes and The Belles, and took me to the concert with him!
After I finished my classes in December and went back home to Philadelphia, Tom and I remained in contact and continued to build our friendship. He was a rock for me when I needed someone to talk to as my Dad got sicker and sicker.
On March 28, 2009 I went down to school for the Relay for Life. Every year tons of entertainment is planned to keep the participants engaged and having a great time. Tom and I were watching The Chimes perform, when all of the sudden I got the courage to turn around and give him a quick kiss. Now, if you know me, that is the last thing I would do on a normal day. I have no idea what gave me the umph to do such a thing, but I did it. And from that day on, Tom and I have talked every single day and turned what was a terrific friendship into an amazing romantic relationship.
Later in the semester I went down to school for another Chimes concert and for Craigsfest, an all day beer fest at a local bar around school. Again we had a great time and continued to realize that we might want to become more interested in becoming more than just friends.
By the time graduation week came around, my Dad was extremely sick and home on hospice. Tom continued to stick by my side (or maybe by his phone is a better way to describe it as we texted each other about 100 times a day!) and he helped me smile even when it was very hard to find the strength to do so. He told me that he wanted to be there for me and I knew he was sincere.
Tom asked me to be his date for our Senior Gala, two days before graduation. We danced the night away, dressed to the nines - him in a suit and me in a dress. This remains one of my favorite nights with Tom as I felt very lucky to be his date. Two days later we graduated and the Loyola chapter of our lives came to an official close.
Just over two weeks later, my father passed away and who was the person that drove 3 hours to be with me through the viewing and funeral? Tom. He had met my father only once at the Relay for Life event at school a few years earlier but he was there to support me during my roughest days. I will never forget how kind and compassionate he was during that most difficult time.
Just one week after my father's funeral, I made the trip to Long Island to visit Tom and attend his brother's annual summer kick-off lu'au, again just trying to cope and distract my thoughts. A few other friends from Loyola were also staying for the weekend and we had a great time and it was a good distraction for me from all the sadness that had been occuring in my life at that time.
Then, two weeks later, Tom and I made it offical. June 28, 2009.
Throughout the last year, Tom and I have made countless trips from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania to see each other on the weekends. I learned every public transportation route possible from Philadelphia to Long Island while Tom learned every major highway. We tried to do as much as possible since we only had a little over 48 hours to see each other. We were lucky if we got to see each other every weekend and tried to split the weekends evenly between my house and his.
However, with both of us working during the week, the traveling on the weekends got to be a lot. We were exhausted from the work week and barely had time to really relax on the weekends because we wanted to do so much stuff with each other since those were the only days we got to hang out. Slowly but surely, the idea of moving closer to each other sounded better and better.
Tom now lives in Jersey City, which is about 10 minutes from Hoboken! We can see each other any day we want to now! We had our first dinner and a movie date last week - on a week night. We jokingly kept asking each other, "wait, what day is today?" because it was a Tuesday night and we are able to hang out.
There is much truth in the saying that "absence makes the heart grow fonder" as we are proof of that over the last year; however, we are very excited to know that our absences will not last as long now that we are just minutes away!
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