Who is Laurel, you might ask? Only the love of my life. She is a girl that I dated three years ago, but the time wasn’t right. What I did learn from my time with her was what true love, companionship and caring was. She also showed me the importance of having Jesus Christ be the center of a relationship, and was never hesitant to pray with me and support me in my time of need. When I say the time wasn’t right, I mean we were both very young, and I did not yet know the value of such things… not to mention that her parents thought I was too old for her.

As time went by, I found myself always searching for "the one". Someone who shared all my beliefs, my dreams, my musical, movie, and food tastes, my love of God, and someone who would never take me for granted. What I didn’t know was that I had her a while ago and didn’t know it. While talking about ex’s with a friend (three years later), I began to remember Laurel, what was so great about her, and why my love for her was so strong back then. I went on about how she could harmonize to anything, sang like an angel, truly loved God, had great taste in music, movies, and food, had a love so strong that it could penetrate the coldest heart, and never took me for granted. My friend then asked me, "If you loved her so much, and she was so great, why aren’t you with her now?" I could only say, "I don’t know".

Turns out that same day, Laurel had sent me a letter and prayed that I would remember her kindly. Two days later I called her, the rest of the week we talked on the phone catching up, and finally, four days later, I saw her. I was a little nervous since it had been so long and she insisted that I would not be attracted to her and she was ugly. She could not have been more wrong. As I walked up the driveway to her house, she came out on the front porch. I had to stop in my tracks and realize what I was seeing. She was THE most beautiful girl I had ever seen. I knew at that moment that she was all I ever wanted and my feelings would never go away. I knew at that moment that my feelings for her never did go away, but just laid dormant until it was time for God to bring us together again. I knew that if she would let me, I would love her until the day I die… and then until eternity in heaven… even after that, probably.

This is why I made a tribute page to her. She deserves it for just being herself. Praise be to Jesus for dying on the cross for us so that we could love each other so much more completely. Praise be to God for bringing us back together after three years. I know now that if God would have let us stay together in the beginning, then I would never be able to appreciate her (I know that sounds awful, but it’s true). I had to realize what I wanted and what I needed. It was Laurel.