The 19 year story of Jenna and Tim begins back in 1998…

Freshman Year High School

We meet as freshmen at Poolesville High School.  Jenna, a fun, outgoing, and beautiful girl is new in town, and me, a 14 year old boy who is a blend of over confidence and awkwardness. We officially meet for the first time in Mr. Bartman’s classroom during a lunch swim team meeting. I am sitting at one of the art room tables; Jenna introduces herself to me and triumphantly declares us friends. While that bold introduction may have kickstarted our friendship on that day; unbeknownst to Jenna is that, I too, initiated my grand plan, later to be referred to as “The Long Game“.
Long Game Move: I used every excuse to snag a ride to swim practice with Jeff, then steal shotgun from Jenna and talk about engineering with Jeff the entire way to Germantown Pool.  When Sarah drove, try to coax Jenna to ride with us, instead of Jeff. The trick is to occasionally yield shotgun to an upper class swimmer, and sit in the back with Jenna.
Jenna: He was so cute! and he stole shotgun EVERYTIME! I tried my best to join the engineering talks. I failed most of the time…

Sophomore Year High School

Jeff and Sarah have both graduated, so I can’t rely on their support for The Long Game. Fortunately, our parents were willing to chauffeur us. We begin hanging out in a group settings. Its getting serious! Friday nights at the movies, parties in basements, AIM chats. All with an 11PM curfew. We are now hanging out regularly and I even get my driver’s license.
Jenna: So romantic! He may have let me win a video game…once.

Junior Year High School

Time to take it up a notch and make my intentions known: Ask Jenna to homecoming. She said yes!!

We look great together and I’m crushing hard, so I use AIM to get as much information about Jenna from Ariana.  My parents are now letting me drive out of town.  This is perfect opportunity for some one on one time. Offer to drive Jenna to swim practice and reveal my maturity by forcing her to listen to the Rolling Stones, Beatles, or whatever happened to be playing on the 94.7 Classic Rock station.

Jenna: We hosted the picture party at my house. I was so nervous. At dinner, he introduced me to escargot. Even then, he had a knack for getting me to try new things. He won homecoming king! I got to go to the dance with THE homecoming king.

Senior Year High School

After kicking it up a notch in Junior year, I decide to play it cool and casual for Senior. We still hang out together, but I don’t push it and spoil all my years of hard work as we wind down our high school career. We send each other postcards while on vacation. Subtle flirting techniques to keep the embers burning.

Ames, Ariana, Jenna, and I go out to dinner at Lone Star in Gaithersburg the night before Jenna leaves for Clemson. It kinda felt like our last night of childhood. She gave me a Homer Simpson’s poster (that gets hung up in my dorm room through most of college). At this point the “Long Game” gets even more complicated. Like a space probe using a gravity assist maneuver, I make sure to set in motion the trajectory for our eventual reunion…

Jenna: After all those postcards, you think I’d have memorized the Auer’s address by now! He always was a huge Simpson’s fan. I had to get him something to remember me by and be equally as college dorm room cliche. Admittedly, I think I’ve watch less than 10 episodes total – hope that’s not a deal breaker!

Clemson/Maryland Years

Jenna became a Tiger at Clemson University, and I became a Terp at the University of Maryland. We split our energy on our studies, football (for Jenna) and basketball(for me). We hung out together over Christmas breaks. And meet at some of the Clemson/Maryland games.  Facebook replaces AIM as our communication mechanism. Our shared facebook activity has the occasional flirty message and wall posts, such as “come hang out in College Park, I know how to sneak you into C-Stone”. While not a daily presence in our lives, we maintained contact and kept in touch.
Jenna: More like we split our energy on football (Jenna) and studies (Tim)! The occasional facebook messages kept the faint possibility a welcomed reality.

Post College

This pattern of facebook communications continues after we graduate college, but with a diminished frequency. We are getting settled in our careers, and sheer distance apart makes it difficult to reconnect. No matter, the embers of The Long Plan continue to smoulder, waiting for the right moment to produce that spark. I followed Jenna’s fashion blog as she travelled across Europe.  This time also gave me an opportunity to hone my photography skills, which were instrumental in the next step of the plan…
Jenna: Man, his pictures were so great, even then. How did we pass the same photography class?

California

By 2014 we are both California residents, but still haven’t reconnected. I need something to catch Jenna’s attention and re-kindle these flames. The final step in the plan is to travel all over the state, posting photos and writing blog posts about California. I even buy an antique Toyota Land Cruiser, and do a photoshoot in Big Sur. Something so drastic is certain to capture Jenna’s attention?And you know what, it did!
Jenna: I was sitting at home, over Christmas break, perusing facebook, and what do I see – Tim’s pictures of the Pacific Ocean. He is on the West Coast. I live on the West Coast! I turn to Ariana, “should I message him, see where he is?” Her response, “yes, duh! who knows, maybe it’s meant to be.” It was, it sure was.