Now What?

A week after Hugh got home, I went off to NAU. Bummer!!! I brought a shrine of pictures of him (just ask my roommate and still BFF Tracy about the pictures.....they were a little obnoxious). I called him all of the time. I came home EVERY WEEKEND. It became very apparent how I felt about him. But, unfortunately, he didn't return the feelings. It even got to the point where he flat out said to me "I don't love you. There is someone else out there for you." I was heartbroken. I mean, seriously, heartbroken. I was sick. I lost about 10 pounds in a two week period. My girlfriends had an intervention with me. They made me take down my shrine!! But my feelings didn't change. Right about the time all of this was going on, I met a girl at NAU who had just recently become a member of the Mormon Church. This girl, CJ, was amazing. We talked about what made her join the church, and not to get overly spiritual here, I felt it. I felt the Spirit. Strong. I knew I needed to take some time to seriously pray about if this feeling I was having was real. It was. I immediately asked CJ to find me some of those Mormon missionaries. She did, and I met with them on several occassions, and I made the decision to be baptized. (Side note: I can honestly say I did NOT join the church because I thought that would make Hugh love me. It was a very personal decision that I did not go into lightly. And to this day, I know it was the best decision I have ever made. ) I called Hugh. I told him I wanted to get baptized. He about fell over. He was excited for me because he could hear and feel my excitement. We told my mom, and she was so supportive. We told his parents, and they were floored! Everyone around me was very excited for me. I asked Hugh to baptize me - of course!! I was baptized on November 3, 1991. Everyone I loved was there. It was a great day. I went back to NAU a few days later. But, the night before my baptism, I found out that Hugh had started dating a very good friend of mine. (She will remain nameless because some of you may know her!!) She was my only Mormon friend while Hugh was on his mission. (I worked down the hall from her mom, which is how I met her.) Anyway, I had introduced her to Hugh when he came home (not thinking that she would EVER date MY Mormon), and he asked her out when I was at NAU. Not to bring up a lot of bad feelings I had at the time...but I made a decision after my baptism that I couldn't be friends with Hugh for a while. I was truly heartbroken at this relationship he had formed with this girl. And I knew that if I wanted to get on with my life, I would need to not have him in it for a while. Yes, well, that lasted two weeks. I came to the conclusion that I would rather have Hugh in my life as my friend than not at all. And so, back to being friends it was.

Hugh and I at my baptism.

I know, I know. The hair, the dress, the glasses.

Please contain your laughter.