love stories: carey & taylor

The Motivation: As a hopeful romantic, I know my love story will unfold when the time is right and I'm excited for it and him to become a part of my life. But until then, I'll continue to live my life and spend a ridiculous amount of time "awww-ing" at other people's romances in order to instill hope in your hearts but also to keep the hope in mine. As part of my love stories series, you can look forward to some of my favorite bloggers' beautiful love stories, shared right here.

But today, I'm here to talk about Carey, one of my dearest college friends, who asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding just a few months ago. Besides being the rational mind for me when I can't seem to get it together, Carey's love story continues to inspire me and fill my heart with hope. As a fun twist, Carey's fiance, Taylor, is sharing his side of their love story today. His beautiful words are a testament to their pure and unfaltering love and it makes me so happy that I get to be a part of their special day in September. 

senior year of high school: taylor & carey [2006]

"I had been on a bus for over 24 hours when it pulled to a stop at Crooked Creek Camp. Everyone on board was rowdy with excitement because we finally reached the place we were told we would have the best week of our lives (money back guarantee). As I waited in line for 80 some odd campers to file off of the bus, I noticed a lot of the camp work crew waiting around the bus. When my turn finally came to step down, I look up to see a strawberry blonde with blue eyes smiling my... I mean... “our” way. I realized the work crew had gathered to help carry our bags to our rooms. So as not to lose my chance, I quickly grabbed my bag and headed back towards the blonde-haired and blue-eyed smiling face. I “strategically” dropped my bag in front of her and said hello.

My fascination with her Chicago accent had me sold! But guilt began to set in after I realized I shouldn’t have let her carry my huge bag, even though she refused any help and trooped on (as I thought to myself, my kind of girl). As she dropped my bag on the floor outside of my room and said goodbye and I made the decision this would not be the last time I would talk to “Chicago."  Low and behold, who was the waitress at the table next to ours at dinner? And of course I tried to get a glance her way anytime she passed by. Several guys at my table took notice and the comments started: “haha you don’t have a chance!” “yea, good luck buddy” and so on.

All the while, I thought, how am I going to talk to this girl? She’s out of my league. Well several dinners and “inconspicuous” glances later, I got my answer.

It was right after lunch, when we all had some free time. I figured we would head over to the main lodge and check out the pool room. On my way down the stairs, I saw her out of the corner of my eye talking to some co-workers. Here's my chance! Quickly, though, I realized, I’m going to make this pretty awkward if I don’t have something to talk about. Anxiety set in and I decided to continue heading downstairs. I made it halfway down when I did something abnormal: I decided I would make it up as I go.

I turned around, headed back up the stairs and in what seemed like a blink of an eye, I was standing in front of her with nothing to say, thinking, “way to go Taylor…” As the conversation with her friends/co-workers ended, she saw that I was standing there and I asked if she had a second to talk.

Carey (Blue Eyes): “Sure, What’s up?”

Taylor (Liar): “I’m interested in work crew next summer and wanted to get your opinion on it.”

Blue Eyes: “Yea! No problem!”

Liar: “Want to play a game of pool while we talk?” (I thought I was smooth with that one)

Forty-five minutes to an hour later I was sold. She’s amazing and I am the guy who came to a young life camp to lie so I could talk to her. Great. But that wasn’t going to stop me. As we said our good byes because her only break of the day was over, I asked, “Could I get your number? You know, in case I have any more questions about work crew.” (That’s twice I  lied at young life camp; I’m going to hell.) She smiled enthusiastically, as if to be excited for me to work there, and wrote down her number.

From that point on, I would get a smiling glance at dinner or a “how’s it going?!” as she rushed pass to serve her table. Needless to say, the guys at my table were shocked.

The last day was there before I knew it and she was standing in the circle drive, close to where I first saw her. We stood around for a few minutes making small talk until the buses showed up. I gave her a hug and said good bye to the girl I thought I would never see again.

1 week later...

I get a text message from Carey (Blue Eyes). We texted a couple of times but it was mostly about how excited she was for me to do work crew.  She obviously did not see through my lies.

About 6 months later...

I’m sitting in my freshman dorm room when I got a friend request on my new Facebook account (circa 2006). Carey Moeller from Hinsdale, Illinois. We started emailing a couple times a week. Then almost once a day.

After that, I was checking my email in between classes. I was set on dating a girl half a continent away. At about three in the morning on a Saturday night when I was texting her, I bought a plane ticket to go see her for the first time since camp.

People don’t have long distance relationships because they are easy. Carey’s time to go off to college came and we decided it wasn’t worth stressing each other out with the distance. Little did we realize neither one of us was really willing to let go that easily. We talked almost everyday. We talked because we missed hearing from each other if we didn’t. She was/is my best friend. We always told each other if it’s meant to be, it will be.

Well let me tell you, it feels like that phrase was meant for us." -Taylor Skains

my personal favorite

{Thank you Carey & Taylor for sharing your beautiful story; love you both!}