August 26, 2009 - Freshman Orientation weekend. We had successfully avoid our group leaders all weekend, which had been quite a chore might I add. My roommates (high school friends) and I weren't too wild about all the different activities that weekend, but just wanted to spend time together celebrating our newly found freedom at Heritage Halls. Like I said we had been successful. That success ended on this particular Saturday night (the 26th). As I remember, all us girls were hanging out in our apartment and we heard a knock on the door, just before the night's festivities of field games at Helaman Field were supposed to begin. We turned off our music, got quiet real quick to hear the two group leaders outside the door. All panicked they would find us, we stood huddled in the hallway for some reason. The next thing we know we hear one of the counselors say "I see your feet, girls!!" They told us they'd be back in another half hour to escort us to the field games. Begrudgingly, we went. Then during the field games a kid won a date with some girl because he drove a mini-van in high school (later to find out, that was Daniel Anderson.)
At the end of the night we were done with the Freshman Orientation event, we were gathering to leave and this weird kid with a weird accent walked up to Rachel Steffensen and Allison Hatch asking them if they wanted any water bottles. (They already had some in their hands). They said no, but for some reason kept talking to this kid (Justin Fillmore). Before we knew it we were all gathered, 6 of us, and about 12 of them... standing on boy and girl sides respectively of the circle, talking about whatever freshmen talk about. We soon learned they were all from Texas, with a few exceptions, and there was a kid who was from Texas but claimed "Colorado" as his hometown (Steve).
Being the trusting, naive, innocent and young BYU Freshman we were, we decided to invite them back to our apartment where we were going to make brownies and watch my John Mayer live in concert DVD. The night continued on, we learned more about them, like their last names, where they lived at BYU, etc, etc. And I distinctly remember learning that this one kid had been to 5 *NSYNC Concerts... his name was Steve Pierce:)
That night was a fun one, one of the most fun nights I've had since I've been at BYU. I remember being in awe that we had just met these kids, felt comfortable enough to invite them over and were all of a sudden best friends. We were blind to the fact that this was the beginning to a year-long friendship, entitled JARRR & Texas.
A few days passed and Allison Hatch (my roommate) came home from Healthy Living class to inform me that that Steve kid was in her class, and she was going to sit by him but she was scared to. By this point I was secretly interested in him so what did I do next? I added the same Healthy Living section, of course!
A few more days passed, we tried to call the boys to hang out again, but they failed to return our calls, but granted we only had Justin's phone number. After a few more tries we all but gave up, thinking these boys were jerks.
Then came the first weekend of the school year, the Fall Fest Dance. Everyone was there, especially any freshmen that didn't have cars. Allison and I went into the restroom inside the WILK, and as we were walking back out to the dance at Brigham Square, who did we run into? Steve & Daniel. We talked to them for a bit, it was mildly awkward because they had avoided our calls for a few days. The next few moments is a whirl-wind, but all of a sudden Steve & I were out dancing to "Collide" by Howie Day. The dance ended, the boys had plans with other people, and we went our own ways. Then later than same evening we all surprisingly ended up at the same party in Heritage Halls (they had friends who lived in the area). I knew that evening wasn't going to end without Brubaker or Allison making me get Steve's number, or them making Steve get my number. The night ended, we exchanged numbers, and went on our way.
That week we sat next to each other in Healthy Living, hung out after class each day, and seemingly began to be more comfortable with each other.
September 10, 2009 - It was a Saturday night. We were trying to find something fun to do, we sat around at our apartment in Heritage Halls for a while, then made our way down to Helaman hoping to find something more fun. It was getting late and nothing was going on. For some reason I was the only girl, I think all my girlfriends ditched out and left me at Helaman Halls in their attempts to get Steve & I to spend some time alone. Well it worked:) That night everyone was calling it a night and going home. Steve, being the gentleman he was, asked if he could walk me back up to my apartment (about a 10 minute walk). We started making way up to my apartment, just talking and talking. The night ended about five hours later (4 am), when he finally walked me back to my apartment. We had spent the night walking around all of BYU campus at least three times over, talking about our families, our friends, hometowns, etc. etc. That night I came home, couldn't go to sleep because a) Facebook was just starting the photo album capabilities and b) I knew there was something special about Steve. I knew there was something special between us.
A few weeks passed, and we officially started dating September 21, 2006 :)
A few pictures of Freshman Year...
The first picture we took together. After a night of intramural games.
For anyone still reading...
Hope all is well wherever you are!!
