Luke & Megan: The DTR Talk

Part 1

Now onto the part of our story where we officially move from friendship to more.

The rest of high school passed with Luke and I hanging out on occasion when our friends from our missions trip team would get together.  We traveled on the same team together again the summer after our Junior year of high school to Lithuania and Latvia.  That summer things were completely platonic, and I enjoyed teasing Luke and our friend Joe about the girls they had crushes on.  Luke, Joe, our friend Mike, and I all applied to go to Grove City College, and even though three of us were placed on the waiting list, we all ended up going to Grove City.

 flying home from Lithuania- probably one of the first pictures of just the two of us

My freshman year hall was linked with Luke's freshman hall to get guys and girls to meet one another and hang out during intervis (specific hours sent aside for students of the opposite sex to hang out in each other's dorms).  But even without that connection, I introduced Luke to one of my freshman year roommates and the two of them hit it off.  I came to the conclusion that at least part of the reason I was at Grove City was to bring the two of them together.  My roommates and I would go and hang out on Luke's hall on Saturday nights, and a lot of those guys became close friends over my four years at Grove City.

Luke and my roommate ended up not pursuing a relationship and Luke and I didn't see as much of each other after that. But the summer after freshman year, I hung out with him and Joe quite a bit. Luke and I drove back up to Grove City together for the beginning of our sophomore year and spent a lot of time hanging out with each other, as well as with his roommate, Justin.  The three of us went to Canada for the day, hung out during intervis, and wandered around campus together.  A lot of times I would spend an afternoon talking to Luke on the phone, and we ate lunch together after our Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes.

Niagra Falls, Canada

Joe was dating one of my best friends, Kate, at the time.  The four of us would often do things together, and on November 7, 2004, Luke finally admitted to Joe that he liked me.  It was all very junior high-esqe, but Joe called Kate, who called me, and said that Luke wanted to meet me in the middle of the quad, which had become "our" meeting place if we needed to talk to each other.

We somehow managed to get the words out that we liked each other, and spent some time walking around campus talking relationship, friendship, and more.  It was the start of us, and it was definitely exciting moving beyond the "just friends" stage.  The DTR (determine the relationship) talk had finally happened after months of spending more and more time together.

one of our first dates- the Crimson: a dinner and dance 

in December on campus at Grove City

Luke was my first (and only!) relationship and so it was a whole new world to me to be dating someone.  And I loved it!  Grove City seemed more magical and many places on campus hold so many memories of things that we did and talks that we had.  The beginning of a relationship is always so wonderful, and God was certainly at work in each of us, especially as our relationship was tested through my insecurities and doubts.