October of 2013 I was in my last semester of college and dating a loser. On October 8th (don’t ask why I still remember the date) I cut it off and vowed to stay away from guys for a while. I continued to do so for the next couple of weeks and then Halloween came around. I had already celebrated early with my best friend in Bakersfield so I wasn’t planning on going out again…

Then some guy on Instagram starting liking a couple of my pictures. Being the deprived woman I was, I went to check out his page. He was freaking hot! I noticed he had posted a picture with one of my friend’s boyfriends. Naturally I texted my friend asking her who Mike Mariot was. She replied in some form of ‘Omg he’s so sweet. We’re going to his place for Halloween – come!’ Well I did already have a costume… Sure, why the hell not 😉

Halloween night rolls around and I’m getting ready at my friend’s house stressing that I need to look perfect – I’m about to meet my future husband! I know it sounds silly but I knew it. Maybe because I was sick of dating and just wanted to find ‘the one’ or maybe God was whispering in my ear ‘don’t screw this up.’

We pull up to his place and I’m nervous as hell in my Wonder Woman costume, we walk inside…and then my memory goes blank! I don’t remember what happened next, Mike says he leaned over the couch shook my hand, haha! The next thing I do remember is realizing that the guy dressed up as a Hooter’s waitress is my supposed future husband.

We eventually made it out to the bars and he and I were dancing all night as if we’d known each other forever. (Here’s a picture of us the night we met) It was such a good night! He and his friend even won “Best Costume” and got $100 to the bar. Pretty sure I still refused to let him buy me a drink – I don’t know if I was playing hard to get or what.

The night is over and it’s time to leave. Mike walked me out and asked “Can I have your number so I can call you sometime?” To which I replied “You have me on Instagram…”
He makes fun of me for that to this day. Again, I think I was playing hard to get. He disagrees and just thinks I’m an idiot LOL

From that night on we were inseparable (that’s why our anniversary is Halloween 🙂 )
Well, come to find out, he’s only in town for a few months (baseball off-season) then off to Arizona then Nebraska for 8 months. I don’t think I knew how much I liked him until we sat down to start looking at flights for me to visit him and I started crying. I am not a crier.

February came around and it was time for him to go. I was a freaking mess. I had class that morning so he sat in my car with me for a minute before we said our final goodbye. We hugged and he got out of the car. I was crying so hard I couldn’t even see. He had come around to my side and was tapping on the window. I rolled the window down and he told me he loved me for the first time. Somehow I uttered out the words “I love you too.”

I don’t think we ever had a ‘let’s try to make this work’ conversation. We just knew we were going to make it work.

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Here we are; five years later, still long distance, still crying like a baby every time he leaves, still making it work.