MY MEET-CUTE
My Meet-Cute
Well, if you’re looking for a story straight out of a Disney movie (specifically 101 Dalmatians), you’ve come to the right place.
When I was in college, I got my first dog. (That is, dog of my own that made me feel like a grown up. We had a ton of dogs in my childhood.) I was not the best trainer because I’m kind of a pushover and definitely did not leash train him properly as a puppy. Now Sokka (named after one of my favorite characters in Avatar the Last Airbender) is a dopey goofball but he’s also strong. And he gets very excited seeing other people/animals. So after I finished my classes for the day, I would take him for walks in the park on a super duper long leash because that’s what the mean dog trainer told me to do.
One day, Sokka spotted a husky that he was very excited to meet. So, as he does, he charged over, pulling me along as he proceeded to circle the husky and his owner. He tangled us all up with his super long leash as I apologized repeatedly but the cute stranger didn’t seem to mind. We talked briefly and then both continued going to the park at the same time every day because we were trying to get on each other’s schedules. I struggle to remember faces until
I know someone pretty well so I would always
be on the lookout for a husky and a guy with
a mountain-man beard.
A few weeks passed by where I didn’t see Justin at the park and my mind went to the worst—that something had happened to Aurora (his dog.) On Mother’s Day, I went to the park after church because my mom was out of town and I fully did not expect to see Justin. It wasn’t even our normal time to be there. But I was also worried about Aurora so I said a little prayer that I could see them just to make sure they were okay. About 10 minutes later, they show up, we decide to let our dogs play in the creek together, and we end up staying there and talking for the next 8 hours.
That was pretty much the starting point. A week later, we went on an unofficial date and a week after that, an official date. Then I had the classic part of the rom-com where the girl decides to call things off for no good reason (third act break-up—I hate that part of the story, but he likes to remind me of it), but thankfully he gave me another chance and a year and a half later, we were married.
Even though the characters I write have their own identity, Justin definitely gives me a lot of inspiration in my books. Our love story makes me so happy and it makes me want to write super cute love stories for all these characters that exist inside my head.