Rewind: Sophomore Year of College- 2000

The athletic training room at Roberts Wesleyan College holds some of my very first memories of James Chase.  I vividly remember commenting on a pair of Red Nike sandals that he had (that matched our school’s colors).  Over the next few weeks, we chit chatted enough, and I must have made some sort of impression on him, because he let me borrow those sandals, and it was quite awhile before I gave them back.  Yes, laugh all you want–we have the same shoe size. . . and cringe if you must that I actually borrowed a smelly soccer player’s shoes.  James–Jimmy back then–was overly social.  I remember a few specific places where we had lengthy conversations, but seemingly insignificant at the time.  On the way into a basketball game, where I remember chatting about my past relationship with my previous boyfriend.  (And a sidenote–he went out and bought me a card, like a “thinking about you during this hard time” card because we had broken up).  Another early memory was Walmart, where we both went with my volleyball teammate to buy school supplies, and she wandered into another aisle which left us no choice but to make small talk.  (P.S. . . .this is the same teammate of mine that James previously had a crush on–though she’s about 6’0″, and we all know how tall James is!)  I remember James telling me that he was always so curious about me and my two friends the previous year, Heather and Meghan.  He used to walk by our dorm commons large window and see Heather and I constantly playing video games–(we rocked Super Nintendo’s Secret of Manna).  And he said that I was with Meghan so much that he literally didn’t know us apart–oh, there’s MeghanBethany.  Totally funny.

I also remember talking about him to my roommate and best friend at the time, Meghan, who lovingly told me, I would let you go out with him, if he was a little taller.  To which I still laugh.  And then there was this other time that I vividly remember, after we had sort of been crossing over the line of “just friends and into something possibly a little more”, when we were out for a little walk around campus, and stopped at my dorm room window to have a chat with Meghan.  He tried talking to her in Spanish, knowing that I only knew the French I had learned in High School.  It was funny though, because I literally know a small handful of words in Spanish, and he seemed to be using the ones I knew.  Ones like muy caliente and a question referring to me and using the word novia?  I pretended that I didn’t know at all what they were talking about, but knew that he just told her that he thought I was “very hot” and asked her if he thought I would be his girlfriend.  I think I found this sort of adorable.

On another occasion shortly after, James and a couple of his friends drove to Buffalo to watch one of my volleyball matches.  This is the first time my mom thought that I possibly had an admirer, because if you know James, you know how loud he is.  And boy was he cheering.  For my team of course, but specifically for me.  And even if my mom was all the way across the gym on the other side of the bleachers, she still heard him.  C’mon B!  Let’s go BB!  You’d better believe I got twenty questions about this mysterious boy after that match.

After awhile, we were pretty inseparable.  We were in some of the same classes.  We ate every meal together.  We waited for each other after our practices.  Went to each other’s games.  Taught homeschool gym class.  Hung out constantly in the quads lounge and played scrabble, did homework or sat in the “cubbies” and talked.  We were constantly down in the gym playing racquetball.  We were even honored enough to be able to say that we each won “Senior Athlete of the Year” for our gender, which was such a fun thing to share together.  He came to my house in Buffalo a few times, and I went to visit him in New Hampshire.  We became one of those couples who everyone knew there would be a “ring by spring”.  And that’s exactly what happened–we were engaged during our senior year.  And then were married less than three months after graduation.

And I still, to this day, revel at the man whom I’ve married.  He’s got the biggest heart of anyone I know.  I used to joke, even when we were dating, small guy, huge heart.  And it’s so true.  That man will drop everything for anyone and give more than 100%.  There’s never a day that goes by that I’m not continually surprised by how much he gives, especially to me.  We’ve had a rock solid ten years so far–and I pray that if anything rocks our boat from here on out, that we continue to hold strong in our marriage.  I love him more than words.

. . . For as long as we both shall live.