I hadn't visited it yet because I was about to head off to Germany as an exchange student for the summer, so I decided to go on yahoo messenger and look up people who lived in the town or went to the school that I was going to go to.

I immediately found two guys who were online, one who went to the college and the other was one who lived in the town. I immediately IM'd them to ask what it was like up there. I never add people to my list unless I know them so I just let them add me. Well the guy who lived in the same town as the college told me all about how it was like a utopia. It was a very environmentally conscious town, full of hippies and drugs. I immediately got scared and was worried about going there. 
 

One late night, I decided to talk to the one guy from the town. We'll call him W because I don't really want to use his name online. I wasn't supposed to be up late and I am not supposed to talk on the microphone either, so I was breaking two rules. My mom was asleep so I thought I might get away with it. I whispered to him over the microphone and I turned on the speakers very low so only I could hear him. When I immediately heard his voice, my reaction was that he was gay. I pretty much just asked him about the area and what it was like up there. He told me of the beautiful Redwood forest and about all the interesting beauty of that place. That night we hung up from the microphone and really never talked again.

Once the summer was over, I was really paranoid about meeting people up at college because I'm shy, so I decided to go a week early to make some friends. I ended up meeting a lot of people, but was still addicted to the internet. I didn't have a computer yet, so I would go to one of the computer labs on campus. One of the days during the first week, the guy W IM'd me again. We started talking and I told him I was up at college. I gave him my cell phone number and told him he could call me anytime. I had actually completely forgotten that I had talked to him on MIC that one night on the internet. He called me one day and I was reminded of our talk. I immediately kind of felt this dread because I remembered that he sounded gay, so I thought maybe he was gay.

Well for some odd reason we decided to meet in front of the library at my school. I thought that was a safe place because it was on campus and we met in broad daylight. For some reason I wasn't even nervous. I just sat there and read a newspaper while he rode his bike to meet me. I told him what I was wearing and that I'd be sitting there waiting for him. I had decided to wear probably the worst clothes I owned because I really had no clue who I was meeting. So anyways, we met and decided to take a walk and talk. I was kind of stunned because he had the most beautiful smile I had ever seen in my entire life.

Even though he had a moustache and beard and sort of longish hair, I couldn't get over his smile and the crinkles near his eyes. I was really shy and couldn't really look him in the face so I stared at the ground when I talked to him. We walked into the forest and he had showed me some trails that he had built before and we just talked about ourselves and our families. I learned that he was a really nice guy and I really enjoyed his company. We started meeting more often and I started actually looking at his face. Once I saw past all the hair on his face, he was really, really good looking. Also his personality was absolutely amazing and I started falling for him hard. I had never had a boyfriend before and was really nervous. He really never asked me to be his girlfriend, he just started introducing me to people as his girlfriend. I didn't say anything so I guess it was all right. I ended up pretty much moving in with him shortly after because I had a roommate from hell at my dorms. She would bring tons of people over and sleep with them when I was there, so I got sick of it and started sleeping at his house at night.

I now moved with him while he went away to college and we are engaged. I am also pregnant with his child and I fall more and more in love with him everyday. I seriously don't think I could have met a better man. He's my first love, my first boyfriend, and the man I want to spend the rest of my life with. We have our struggles like every couple and we definitely don't always agree, but we are always learning from each other. We know that it always takes a lot of hard work to keep a relationship going and that our love can persevere through it all. I feel blessed to have met him my first time around.

He is my best friend and will always be my best friend. We have talked about this many times and I have agreed that no matter what happens in our relationship, we will always be there for each other and be best friends. That is the most important part of a relationship: Friendship. That is what we base our lives on.

"Hoss"