People always say that love at first sight only happens in fairy tales. The feeling so as to have found “the one” just by looking at someone was… impossible, but that is completely and totally wrong. It happened to me over the summer of my sophomore year of high school.

It was July 8th, at 9:30 p.m. I was packing my bag for my trip to Saint Louis, Missouri. I had to be at the church by 2 a.m. to head to Wausau. When we would arrive at Wausau, five other youth group students and I, would board a bus. The bus would bring us to a large and very popular Christian youth conference called LIFE.

My alarm bussed at 1:30 a.m. I looked at the clock, then grabbed my bag, slipped my sweatpants on over my leggings, threw my hair into a bun, and grabbed my backpack. I ran up the steps with everything I was bringing on my back and in my arms. I dropped my bags on the couch and tiptoed into my mother’s room to wake her up. After my mom had woken up, we headed for the church.

It was July 9th, 2:00 a.m., and the youth van was packed and headed to Wausau. It was about 6:00 a.m. when we reached the Alliance church in Wausau where the bus was waiting. We were the first ones to arrive at the church and there was saw our bus, the home we would have for the next eighteen hours or so. The six of us grabbed our bags from the trunk of the van and started to slide our belongings underneath the giant gray hound coach bus. After all our bags were under the bus, we walked to the very back of the bus and claimed the seats farthest away from the other people.

It was 6:20 a.m. and the next church had arrived. It was the Alliance church from Saint Croix Falls. There were six boys who walked onto the bus. The first two of the teenage boys who walked on were brothers. Both of them were tall and skinny with their fair share of acne. The next was also tall, but he had blonde, shaggy hair. His manner of walking was confident but also with gentleness. His name was Zach which I would find out on a later date. As Zach walked on, he turned around and waved for someone and said, “There are still back seats open. If you hurry, we can claim them before anybody else does!”

As Zach turned around there was a fourth boy to follow. He was tall, about five feet nine inches. His arms were muscular, and tan along with the rest of his body. Connected to his long, strong arms were his hands. He had large hands with long fingers, perfect for playing the piano. He was slender, but built with broad shoulders, and a great posture. His face was long, and about the bottom of his face he had a swell clef in his chin. Just like how they depict the prince charming in all the fairy tales you hear s a child. He was wearing a blue Saint Croix Falls pole vaulting shirt and black athletic shorts. He was also wearing aviators that his the eyes I would soon fall in love with. There was something in the way he walked. He walked strong, with his chest open, and his shoulders back. He took long gliding strides, and carried himself bravely. To me he was attractive yet he seemed to be proud at first glance. He made my heart flutter. As if I swallowed a net full of butterflies. My gaze was on him, and there was no way anyone could break the spell I was under. He was the most handsome man I had ever seen. My heart skipped a beat, and I thought to myself, “How could someone so attractive ever like someone like me?”

I quickly shut that thought out of my mind when I heard his friend Zach calling for him to sit right in front of where I was sitting, Hey Ales, right here bud, I saved a seat for you!”

I could barely contain the joy I was feeling inside.

The whole bus had been filled now but all I saw was him. Alex… that name sat in my head like a brick. The thought of him and his angelic name weighed more than any other thought in my mind.

Alex put his bag in the carrier compartment up above, and plopped down next to Zach. Then he slid off his aviators like an angel and turned to talk to Zach, but his gaze had fallen upon me instead. The whole world seemed to stop as I looked at him.

His eyes were breath taking. He had large eyes with a rich black, brown sun that surrounded his pupil. There was a gold rim tracing the sun shaped brown. The gold rim made is eyes pop. Further out was a dark forest green with an even darker green rim that surrounded the edge of his iris. His eyes glistened with a happiness I had never seen before. My heart pounded in my chest. There was something in the way he had looked at me that gave me the butterflies that every girl wants to feel; it was 6:25 a.m.

He gazed at me, and I gazed back at him. The corner of his mouth had been brought up into a smile. As my mouth cracked open and small dribble of saliva fell from my mouth in awe of this beautiful creature that had spoken to me. He stuck out his hand to shake mine, but all I did was stare at him, with my saliva still glued to my face. Until he reached out, and tucked a stray hair behind my ear and said, “Hey there, I’m Alex, and you are?”

I was snapped out of my trance still not noticing my stream running from the nuke in my mouth. When I started to speak I could not hide my nervous feelings, “Oh… Hey… I am… ahh… Beth… Yeah Beth. I go to the… ahh… Alliance church in… Amery.”

He reached out to me once more, and angelically whipped my dribble of saliva and whispered, “Here let me get that for you. Well, Beth,” he said, “I hope to get to know you more.” Then he turned around with a slight smirk on his face.

Everyone was exhausted from being there so early that the majority of the people slept most of the way there. Many hours had passed when I heard someone say, “We are here! Wake up everyone!”

It was 9:30 p.m., July 9th. All 10,000 of the youth that had come to Missouri for the LIFE conference were gathered into a ware house for the Lecrea concert and sermon. My group and I were ling for seats when Zach called out for us saying he had seats saved for our group.

We joined them and Alex, the man I had been thinking about since we departed from each other, walked up to me and sat down beside me. A giant smile was plastered on his face. He popped out his iPod and asked me if I had a Facebook, and, or a phone. All I could do is giggle inside because this attractive young man wanted my number to talk to me. I flung out my phone, and game him my number, and he gave me his.

During the concert he asked me many questions such as how old I was, what grade I was in, what my relationship with God was like, where I wanted to live when I was older, even if I had a current boyfriend. When I had told him I didn’t have a boyfriend at the time his face light up with a giant smile.

When the concert was over, and we both headed back to our hotels where we would dream about each other all night long. When I arrived at my hotel, I had received a text from him saying, “You’re different. You make me smile, and I get a weird feeling when I am around you. I hope this doesn’t alarm you, and scare you away from me. So I’ll just stop talking now. Goodnight Elizabeth.”

I clutched my phone to my chest, and flopped down onto my bed with a grin a mile wide upon my face. For the rest of the week we tried every day to spend as much time with each other as we could, because we had no idea when our instant love story would end, and when we would have to separate and go our separate ways.

It was the last day of LIFE, and everyone was gathered for the last sermon of the day. The worship music had started, showing that we were almost to a close. Then I felt fingers running down my wrist, and his fingers intertwine with mine. I looked up at him, and his face was red and his eyes glassy as if he were going to cry. I leaned my head in and laid it against his arm, and we sang our last song together.

LIFE is all over now, but we stayed in contact and made plant to get together all the time. We spent days upon days spending time with each other and each other’s families.

The last day we were friends was August 11th, 2013. That night he asked to talk to my mom, my father, and me. We all gathered into the living room, and looked straight at him wondering what in the world he was about to do. He looked at my dad straight in the eye and said, “I would like the permission to formally dare your daughter Elizabeth.”

I could tell he was nervous because he put his hand on mine gripped my fingers into a death lock.

My father looked at him with a heavy dreadful gaze. The suspense and emotion grew. Then my father nodded his head in conformation and approval, it was now official.

I jumped over to Alex and hugged him in excitement. It was one month and two day until he asked my father.

We have been dating now for four months on December 11th, and we are as happy as can be. From the second I saw him; I have seen him in my future.