Hey guys! If you didn’t see my post on Monday, then you don’t know, I just turned 21! *queue the bad dancing*
In that post I promised a post about what Eduardo got me for my birthday, which really does deserve its own little monologue-y anecdote thing. To start things off I’m going to share a little about our relationship and how we got to where we are today (including some less than flattering pictures of our more formative years)…
Eduardo and I met in middle school, sixth grade, 2007, to be exact. We were in the same group of classes but we didn’t actually have any classes together (as far as I remember) but we had mutual friends. At the time, you know when we were 12, Eduardo had really bad acne, a weird facial hair situation, and braces, typical preteen problems. I remember that in sixth grade I was the second tallest girl in my class, I desperately needed glasses, and all of my girlfriends usually managed to convince me to wear bright purple eyeshadow. In seventh grade we definitely started talking more, we had classes together, but we were “just friends.”
After seventh grade we really just texted each other. We ended up not going to the same high school, we weren’t allowed to date, our relationship was entirely online. We used Skype all the time and talked on the phone. On my sixteenth birthday I was allowed to invite him to dinner with my family and after that my mom was totally cool with me hanging out with him. Those pictures are of both of us in eighth grade (I did honestly try to find a bad one of me).
While we kind of officially starting telling people we were a couple after senior prom we were definitely together way before then, now if people ask how long we’ve been together we say about six years. Yep, I just turned twenty-one, he’ll turn twenty-one in April, and we’ve been together for six years. We didn’t go to the same high school, we didn’t start at the same college, we weren’t allowed to see each other for a few years… Some people say that high school love just doesn’t exist and never lasts, I’m here to tell you that it definitely can, but not that it will.
Like any other relationship we’ve hit some major rough patches, but they almost never have to do with who we are as people, it was more about the situation we were forced into. A few years ago I started working at a daycare. I love kids, I want kids, everyone who knows me knows that my goals consist of having a family by the time I’m 25. When we were a little younger, I’m talking like eighteen/nineteen, people would be shocked when I would say that and they would ask, “Does your boyfriend know that?”
Yes. He has always known that I want babies and I want babies soon. He knows that I want two children, he knows that I’ve had names picked out since I was twelve. Like I said, no one who knows me is surprised when I whip out my pinterest boards full of babies or when I talk to the babies I see when I’m out and about.
So, almost two years ago, we officially moved in together (I know this is getting lengthy and it’s kind of “what does this have to do with her birthday” but I promise, we’re getting there) and I gave him several ultimatums. Get a job, at the time he had never been employed and I was tired of him asking his parents for money. Get better grades, as freshmen in college he was literally failing pretty much everything and I was working full time and pulling almost straight A’s. Once both of these things happened I still wasn’t happy, so on my twentieth birthday (where we went out to Golden Corral…) I told him that if I didn’t have a ring by the time I turned twenty one I was going to leave.
I work in a funeral home, I grew up in the mortuary science world, life is short. Life is so short and there are so many people in the world. I have never been the kind of girl who relied solely on any one person. I’m usually the one that people rely on. Ultimately, I believe that if something happened where we couldn’t be together, my goals probably wouldn’t change, I would move on and find someone else who wants the same things I do.
The ultimatum was really just a way for me to push him to prove that he wants the same things that I want. The past year has been full of growth for both of us, I stopped talking about the ring a few months ago, because the engagement ring I want is an expensive dream and I’m okay with the fact that I won’t get that ring probably ever, and because we have talked more about our future and I know he wants what I want.
In the week before my birthday a box was on the counter when we got home and I knew it was a birthday present. First thing you should know about me, I love surprises, however I always spoil them. So I grabbed the box off the counter and shook it and Eduardo literally chased me around the house to get it back. The box was about the size of an oversized paperback and in my head it was a Kate Spade phone case because there’s this particular one I’ve had my eyeballs on… I told Eduardo like “Oh now I know what you got me” blah blah blah and he was really upset but I didn’t tell him what I thought it was and he didn’t tell me what it actually was.
For a few days I was convinced he got me that Kate Spade phone case but we didn’t really talk about it… We were walking around Disney on Friday and I said something about how my birthday present had glitter in it and he was like “Uh what do you mean?” And I was like, “Well it’s that glitter phone case.” And he said, “Oh my god, you think I got you a f*cking phone case!?”
I literally flipped out, I always ruin my surprises because I always guess what I got. I did manage to guess my second present (Swarovski Crystaldust double bangle in Dark Crystals) which I’m really happy to have in my limited jewelry collection. I’m obsessed with Swarovski crystals, a few years ago he got me a pair of Swarovski earrings, I love them.
I pestered him until he agreed to let me open my presents that night instead of waiting until Sunday morning… The first present was the Swarovski bracelet which I had already guessed, and the second was the box. I opened the box and immediately closed it. The Pandora box could have been earrings or a ring and I literally died when I thought ring. A few months ago I was looking at Pandora’s rings but I couldn’t find a ring that I liked that they had in my size so I didn’t buy one. I opened the box and it’s a beautiful band, half of it is rhinestone cubic zirconia whatever and the other half is like a white inlay, and then the actual band has hearts cut into it… It’s so perfect.
When I say I cried, I mean I was laying on the bed sobbing, because of this ring. No, it’s not an engagement ring, but I never said he had to propose, I just said he needed to put a ring on one of my fingers. So this ring is a promise ring, a promise that one day I’ll have a real ring, that we will be together forever. I don’t wear it on my left ring finger just because I feel like that’s exclusively for my engagement ring and my wedding band…
Anyways, I have the best boyfriend ever and I appreciate everything he does for me. Let me know how your bae surprises you!
Xx
Team Santana 