The Husband - How I met him
This is obviously a personal story, with no point and is only my point of veiw. If you ask Lyndon I am sure he will have a very different story of how we met. This is my story.
When I was planning to go to university I had a great discussion with my Aunty Gillian (who encouraged me in my learning and was a big help in so many ways with my first year of uni). I talked about my fears of university and how I could overcome them. After the discussion which covered finances, the courses I would take, my goals and aims Gillian said “It’s funny how your biggest worry isn’t that you won’t cope with the coursework, but it’s that you won’t be able to make friends or fit in”. And she was right.
I felt like with finances I had a solid plan on how to cope (and a student loan), with coursework I would just put more time into studying or get a book on how to study effectively but with relationships and friendships I was terrified. I am not naturally good at relationships.
So when I got to Uni and found that it was easy to make friends I was so relieved. I dated a wee bit (nothing serious) but mostly just hung out with my friends (mostly female) and tried to get to grips with the university lifestyle (where I didn’t HAVE to go to my 8am Friday morning lectures….but Mum I did go - mostly). That was how the first 3 months of Uni went.
I do remember when I first saw Lyndon, on the first day I got to University. We were all at this big evening meeting for new students where they tried to help us get comfortable, settle in and told us all sorts of fascinating things (like where the laundry was). They also asked the RA’s (Residential Assistants) to stand up. He was the youngest RA, just 19 and looked a bit unwashed, with long blondish hair sticking out of his beanie. He said something as he stood up and everyone around him laughed.
I ran into Lyndon a few times over those first 3 months, he was friends with my RA (each RA was given a small group of students who lived in the same building to support and keep an eye on) so he was in my hall of residence a fair bit. I made friends with my RA early on in the piece (shout out Andrew Gage!) because not only was he friendly and easy to talk to, but technically he was paid to be nice to us so I didn’t have to worry about not being able to make friends with him (it was his job to be friends with us!).
After a few months my friends and I started to eat dinner with Lyndon and Andrew on a regular basis, and we all became friends. The moment I first looked at Lyndon as potentially more than a friend was at dinner one night. We had all finished eating and were just sitting around the table chatting and telling stories. A guy came up to the table to say hi and he had bandages around both his arms, this guy was ALWAYS hurting himself or getting sick, so Lyndon said “Hello Sick-Boy bla bla bla”. And I laughed at the obvious reference to the movie Van Wilder. I thought to myself - this guy is funny. No one else laughed, but Lyndon looked appreciative that someone understood him.
And from then on we started hanging out, making movie references and laughing a lot. But just as friends. Then I decided I quite liked him and he was giving me all the right signals, we were flirting…. So I made a move and he was terrified and ran away. I was MORTIFIED.
He literally ran away when I tried to kiss him.
So good for a girls self-esteem. After being mortified for a bit, I was angry. How dare he lead me on then run away! How dare he!
I talked to a mutual friend and he said that Lyndon did like me and he didn’t know why he ran away (maybe he was startled). After processing this, and getting confirmation from his other friends, that yes he was massively into me but panicked easily. I thought I would give it another shot, and yes this time he kissed me and from then on we were inseparable. Pretty much from that moment (more than 11 years ago) he has been my best friend.
As far as I am concerned, the key to our relationship working is the solid base of friendship and a huge amount of laughter together. Every day we laugh about something, every day we see the funny side of things and every day I feel so flipping lucky to be married to my best friend.
KG
PS- disclaimer: sometimes he drives me mad and I want to hit him but I am told this is normal :)
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