Flashback Friday

A long time ago,

(11 years)

in a faraway place,

(Arches National Park, Windows lookout)

Two almost-strangers intercepted.

And the rest is history.

July 2014

April 2003
My parents had come to Utah to celebrate my brother Sean's BYU graduation. As part of their long weekend, they took all their BYU student-children down to Moab and Arches National Park. We did a couple short strolls, including Windows lookout.

The following weekend - my parents were gone by then of course - I was back in Provo and noticed that a boy who I thought was cute had now parked his car across the street from our complex at an old rundown house instead of in his usual spot out my apartment window. (I may have been slightly stalker-ish...) That particular evening, I felt strangely pushed there by a force other than my own. I knocked on his door about 9pm. Luckily, he answered and didn't have a date over.

I said, "I saw your car parked over here. Have you moved?"

And he replied, "Yeah. So what did you think of Arches?"

I was shocked. "How do you know I was at Arches last weekend?"

He invited me into his awful living room, and we talked for a few hours on his awful couch. First, of course, we talked about Arches. The previous weekend this cute boy in my ward, Ryan Williams, had been training for his coming summer job as a tour guide to Japanese visitors. He happened to be headed towards the Windows lookout as my family was headed back to the parking lot.

I did not see him that day at Arches, but he saw me and said nothing.

After we sorted out the Arches "coincidence," we talked about just about everything - growing up, family, majors. We immediately felt comfortable together, and ended up spending much of the rest of the weekend together.

The following Monday, Ryan left to live in Las Vegas for the summer for this tour guide job. Because of my visit that evening and our immediate connection, we spoke frequently all summer and visited each other as often as we could.

By fall when he returned, we were engaged... and the house he now rented had been switched into another ward's boundaries. If I hadn't stopped by that night, we would have missed each other.

And all because we were both at the Windows lookout at Arches National Park at the same moment in April 2003.

***

Of course, during our trip to Arches last week we had to stop by the Windows lookout.

Fun story?