I met my boyfriend at a night club. It was shag night, and I went with a couple of friends. Shag night is usually fun and safe; full of lots of nice college students. A good friend of mine was talking with Jesse, and when their conversation ended he said to me, "Hey, I'm Jesse." To which, I responded, "I'm Haily, and I know; we follow each other on Instagram." Romantic, right? He responded with a laugh and said, "Oh, so we're basically best friends." I never imagined that I would meet someone so soon, and there of all places. At the time, I was not the least bit interested in boys or being in a relationship, but things quickly changed after that.
I started seeing Jesse lots of places. He would come to Young Life events, ice skating with mutual friends, and we even went to the same church. After a random game night with friends, I realized that Jesse was a very outgoing guy, and I was glad to be creating a sweet friendship with him.
The next day at church, Jesse mentioned that he had to go to an opera later in the day as part of his participation in a music appreciation class. He asked if anyone would join him, and I, being the music-loving freak that I am, agreed to go. We laughed the entire time!
A little while later, Jesse convinced me to watch the show "Friday Night Lights" with him. It's a great show; if you haven't seen it, I totally recommend watching it. We began hanging out on a regular basis, and I started to realize that I might actually have feelings for him.
Two months after meeting Jesse we started dating. The more I got to know about him, the more I liked him, and that still applies today. Some of my favorite things about Jesse are his kind heart, his irrational fear of spiders, his sense of humor, his love for "High School Musical," his patience, his dorky dance moves, and the way that he spoils me rotten. But my absolute favorite thing about Jesse is his heart for the Lord.
Jesse is who he is today because of how much he loves Jesus. And it's because of the Lord that we're even in a relationship to begin with. The presence of the Lord is so evident to me in everything that Jesse does, whether it's helping the poor and homeless, choosing joy in everything, sacrificing things to make others happy, or even just putting up with me in general. I'm a handful. Everything that Jesse does, he does it with joy. He is not easily angered, and he really does believe that in the end, everything will be okay. If that doesn't reflect Jesus, I don't know what does.
Jesse is everything I've ever wanted in a man and then some. They say that you should be with the guy that not only makes you happy, but that pushes you closer to the Lord every day. That's exactly what Jesse does for me. He treats me far better than I could imagine someone treating me. He comforts me in sad times, and he makes the good times great. No matter what happens with us, I am so grateful for the relationship we have and how he constantly pushes me toward Jesus and how he leads by example. You make me a better person, Jesse, and I'm so proud and thankful to be your girl.
