Once upon a time, there was a boy...

One year ago today, my life started down a path that would change it forever.

I had been home from my mission for two years. I had a good job, school was going well, and I even had recently bought a house. But there was an emptiness in my life. Ask my roommate at the time, McKay, and he'll tell you what we talked about all the time: girls. That is, our lack of them. I wanted to have a girl, to be in love, to find someone that I could spoil and pamper and give everything to. I hadn't had much time in my older life that I hadn't had a girlfriend, and really it hadn't been that long since I'd had one. But I really was wanting something more that just a girl to date. I wanted a "love of my life".

And so I had set out on a quest. I was going to ask out any girl I thought I might want to get to know. Nothing to lose, no fear. I made a fool of myself sometimes. I asked out a girl at the grocery store. I asked out a number of girls that I didn't know had boyfriends. I went on a bunch of awkward first dates, they weren't terrible but usually by the end the girl wasn't talking much. I was stalling, hitting a dead end, and I was getting desperate--which is not a good place to be in the dating world. I had tapped all my resources for meeting new girls, and nothing had come out of it!

But I kept my head up as much as I could. I kept my faith strong that I would meet someone. I had done all I could, and now it was in the Lord's hands. It was a constant matter of prayer to me to find the girl of my dreams. To some that might seem silly, but if it is so important to me and my intentions are pure, I believe that it is important to my Heavenly Father too. So it was time to let go and give it to him.

I was still dating as much as I could, doing my part, but I let the worry fall to the miracle worker, cause I felt like that's what I needed!

Around this time, my roommate and I were getting a lot of requests to sing in our singles ward. Wanting to meet people as well as wanting to serve, we accepted as much as we could. One such occasion was the Sisters Appreciation Dinner put on by the elders. Just sing a few songs, what a great thing to do to show the sisters our appreciation. We showed up that night and practiced with the guitarist for about 20 minutes, then went in to sing. I sang "She's Got a Way" by Billy Joel and a hymn, and McKay sang this song from "The Wedding Singer." It went well, but didn't seem to be that memorable.

Then we went home, and I got an interesting text message from a number I didn't recognize:

"Hi is this Tanner from our ward that sings?"

"haha yes I guess you could describe me that way, who is this?"

"This is Britney are you dating anyone?"

Ok, Britney, I think I remember who you are...are you being really forward with me, or what is going on?

"no I'm not actually, I know, it's shocking..."

"You should ask out my friend Ashley in our ward"

"Which one is Ashley?"

"She is short, really cute, and has swoop bangs, she was sitting next to me at the dinner tonight"

"So your saying she would like it if I asked her out?"

"I'm just saying that you should"

"Ok, good to know :)"

Interesting....I wasn't sure what to think. I think I might know who she is talking about,but I can't really remember...but I think I will look into this :)

...to be continued