JASON
August 10, 2013 – the day before my 36th birthday in Montauk…WAY out at the tip of Long Island. For those of you still reading by sentence #2 and not from the New York area, Montauk is a pretty swanky little fishing village about 125 miles due east of NYC – the Hamptons’ version of a “beach town” – and I’ve been going there much of the summer for years, renting houses with friends. There’s a friendly argument plastered all over Montauk memorabilia as to whether that’s where Long Island ends…or where it begins. I’m in the “where it begins” camp.
A group of us were out to dinner at over-the-top-disguised-as-laid-back Surf Lodge, including my housemates and friends. We were glad our friend Matt had gone pants-forward and invited several girls he was friends with to dinner because we’re fairly mediocre at striking up conversations with women we don’t know. Who did I notice immediately? The hottest one of course, with the great smile and all that amazing blond hair. What did I do about it? Talked to everyone at the table but her (refer to 4 sentences back). With a lot of good stories and a fun group we finally broke the ice – and I have to give Sarah “Sar Bear” Hardy most of the credit for that. But all I wanted was an in. And I think the fact that I’m writing this means I have made the most of that “in” about 100 times over.
Our groups got together again the next day – Sunday, my birthday – and I made sure of that even if it inconvenienced everyone else. And amazingly she wanted to see me again after that. Next time was dinner at the Harrison in Tribeca, and yadda yadda yadda…wedding! So there we go, that’s how we met.
“But wait!” say you observant reader, “I thought this is about how we got here.”
I loved Sarah from very early-on. It took me a little while to actually say it for the first time (right after seeing the rom com Wolf of Wall Street with her!), but I felt it. This girl is amazing. She’s smart. She’s funny. She’s beautiful. She thinks I’m funny. She cares deeply about her family and friends. She’s loyal. She’s trustworthy. She’s a Republican. She communicates well with me. She takes her faith seriously. Did I mention she thinks I’m funny? It’s awesome. Honestly, without knowing it I’ve been zeroing in on Sarah my entire life, making mistakes, popping back up, and learning along the way.
So I found all of that late summer 2013…and to my utter dismay, Sarah was several rounds deep into interviews with NASCAR and about to move to Charlotte. I’m skeptical of long-distance relationships but in this case I had to take a chance. All I had to lose was the love of my life if I didn’t give it a shot!
And I’m thankful every day Sarah also was willing to take that chance on me. We’ve spent the past two years building our relationship, having adventures and seeing each other as much as we can. All of you reading this have been there with us along the way, so you have crafted your important pieces of our story and helped bring Sarah and me to this point. By all rights it should have been hard but honestly it was easy because I knew it was right.
And as we come upon our “big day”, I’m 100% absolutely positive its right. I hope that most of you will be there for our wedding to help us kick off the rest of our lives together. This isn’t the culmination of anything – it’s the beginning of everything to come. As I said before, I’m in the “where it begins” camp.