Love Unknown- Sunday Share with Abbie Nicholas

Hey guys! I have some news that I am freaking excited, thrilled, joyous, and every good adjective in the book world about! A week ago I put a status on my social media platform, calling anyone who wanted to share their story with the blogging world. And guess what? To my surprise, people were interested and stories started trickling it. Not just made up stories that are told to merely entertain. Instead they are real, raw, and down right incredible. And disclaimer, I freaking love them!

I am so excited to introduce our first guest blogger, Abbie Nicholas. Her story is one filled with love and hope, it is totally fitting for the month of love!

Hey everyone!

I am glad I get to share my story with you today. Here we go, buckle up and settle in.

We will start with some background on myself. My name is Abbie Lee Nicholas. I am 23 years old and married to my absolute best friend, Taylor. Fun fact about Tay and I: Our birthdays are both in October. Mine is the 11^th and his is the 17^th, but he is a year older.

I graduated in 2013 from Preston High School. After graduating, I moved to Logan, UT and moved in with a great bunch of girls I went to school with. I was at Utah State University for 1 year majoring in psychology. After that year, I just didn’t feel like that was where I was supposed to be, so I quit school and just kept working full-time. I kind of jumped from job to job and then ended up back at my parents’ house and working at New York Deli in Preston, ID. The same job I had my senior year of high school.

In November 2015, I got a text from a friend, Kayla Winward, saying that I should go on a date with this guy named Taylor Nicholas. She told me that she’s known him for a long time and that he was a good person. So Taylor got a hold of me and asked me if I wanted to go on a double date with him and his brother to dinner and a hockey game. I had just been in a relationship that wasn’t exactly healthy and I for sure was not looking for anything serious, but I was needing to get out of the house, so I said yes.

Now to detour for a minute here, this is Taylor’s LEAST favorite part of our story. I don’t really know why he is embarrassed about this, but whatever, it is what it is. Taylor and I had already *sort-of* knew each other. Because we had “met” on Tinder a couple months prior. I messaged him first after we matched and never heard back, so I figured, “Well, I guess he doesn’t want to talk to me.” So I just left it alone. About a month or so later, he messaged me back and we started talking back and forth just general questions like “Where did you go to school? Where are you from?” At the time I was coaching volleyball at Preston and was right in the middle of our season and I was pretty busy. He tried asking me on a couple dates, but every time he asked I always had something going on. So he gave up. We didn’t talk for another couple weeks until Kayla had texted me.

Ok, back to our first date. He lived in Corinne, UT at the time and I was in Franklin, ID. About an hour and ten minute drive one way. I told him that I didn’t want to make him drive all the way to Franklin to pick me up, then drive to Salt Lake City for the game then drive back to Franklin to drop me off and then back to Corinne to get home. So I told him I would meet him in Logan to shave off sometime at least. He was parked in the CAL Ranch parking lot in Logan and I pulled up next to this truck I was hoping was his. I went to step out of my car and he opened my door and said, “Hey, I’m glad you made it down here ok. It’s nice to finally meet you in person.” And I was sort of dumbfounded at his politeness and gentleman-like qualities. I responded, “Yeah, I’m glad to finally meet you in person as well!”

He opened the door for me on his truck and I got in. He jumped in the driver’s seat and away we went. When I first got in the truck I noticed that the middle seat was all cleared off and I was thinking, “I wonder if he wanted me to sit in the middle by him… but that’s kind of weird seeing that we just barely met.” So I stayed put in the passenger seat. 

We made small talk on the drive down to SLC, but honestly, it was kind of awkward. I was REALLY nervous for this date because Taylor was a returned missionary for the LDS church and I was nervous he was going to be disappointed to be going on a date with a girl who had 5 piercings in one ear and 3 in the other and 3 tattoos. And me being nervous for a date, let alone nervous about what someone is going to think of me, is not like me at all. I normally wouldn’t have cared one bit, but I did. So I wasn’t saying much because I didn’t want to say something that would send him running for the hills.

We got to Iggy’s Sports Bar and Grill and had to wait for his brother and his date, so we just sat in the truck. Luckily by this time conversation had started to come a little easier and he was telling me about his mission and how much he missed it.

When his brother showed up, we went in and got a table and sat down. By this point, I had made myself sick from being nervous, so I hardly ate anything. And neither did Taylor, but I didn’t really think much of it. But after dating for a little while, he told me that he had the flu the couple days prior and still wasn’t ready to eat a whole lot, poor guy.

We got to the hockey game and I was really excited, I had never been to one before. As the game was about over, things started to really get fun when fights were going on and it was a tie game, so tensions were high. Some awesome play happened and Utah made the winning goal. If you know me at all, you know that I love sports. I played volleyball and basketball in high school so it made me competitive. Well, Taylor didn’t really know that about me at the beginning of the game, but boy, by the end he sure knew. I jumped up and down when that play happened and was yelling, whistling, making a total fool out of myself after I realized what I had done on a first date with this kid I hardly knew. I felt my face instantly start going red and I sat down and tried to pretend like nothing happened. But, Taylor just smiled and looked at me and said, “That was awesome!”

After the game was over, we started walking back out to his truck. There were people everywhere, it was cold and I hate Salt Lake for a number of different reasons, but mostly because that ex-boyfriend I mentioned earlier that ended because of it being a pretty unhealthy relationship, lived in SLC. I was terrified of seeing him while I was with someone, let alone by myself. I kept feeling like I needed to look over my shoulder to make sure he wasn’t there. Even though I knew it was a pretty slim chance he’d be there as well. As we were walking, because of those thoughts running through my mind, I kept wanting to grab Taylor’s hand. Just for comfort really, but I couldn’t convince myself to do it. I didn’t want to scare him or anything, so I just walked really close by him and we finally made it to the truck.

He opened my door again and as he was walking around the front of the truck to get in, I decided I was going to sit in the middle by him. So I moved as he was opening the door. He got in, saw me sitting in the middle, smiled and said, “I was hoping you would come sit by me this time.” He started the truck and we sat there for a minute letting it warm up. Then my phone started ringing. My best friend and former roommate, Sarah, was calling me. I answered because I wanted to make sure nothing was wrong. Sarah says, “Hey! What are you doing?” and I replied, “Well, I’m actually on a date right now, can I call you back later?” She replies, “Oh! With that cute cowboy you told me about?!” My face went red because I knew Taylor could hear her and I said, “Yes, that one. I’ll call you back later, ok?” So I hung up the phone.

We started driving and were talking about the game and other things and I started to get really tired. He asked me, “If you need to go to sleep, go ahead. I’ll be ok to drive home.” I felt so stupid, but I just couldn’t keep my eyes open. So I said, “Are you sure? I am sorry, I don’t know what is wrong with me tonight.” He replied, “You’re just fine. Go to sleep.” So I laid my head down on his shoulder and fell asleep.

I realize now looking back that I NEVER would have done that with anyone else on a first date. But I just felt so safe and trusted him so quickly that I knew it wouldn’t be a big deal.

I woke up before we got to Logan and we pulled in to the CAL Ranch parking lot. He said, “If you want to give me your keys I’ll start your car so it can warm up.” So I handed him my keys. He jumped back in the truck and we sat and talked for a couple minutes. I said, “I had a lot of fun tonight. I’m glad we were able to finally go on a date.” He replied, “Me too. That was really fun.” *Awkward silence.* so I blurted out, “What are you doing next weekend?” He said, “I don’t think I’ve got anything going on.” I replied, “Well I think we should do something.”

Basically the rest is history. We started hanging out every time we had the chance. He asked me to be his girlfriend in December 2015, we got engaged in February 2016 and were married June 2016.

I would not change it for the world. After being in a couple bad relationships, where I was treated like a piece of dirt, was taken advantage of, cheated on and thrown away, he made me feel worth something again.

Even though he is an RM and was obviously strong in the LDS church, I was not. I was raised LDS, but had been inactive for a long time. But that never bothered him. He never judged me for anything I had done. He just loved me and always would tell me, “I don’t care what you did in your past. All I care about is where you are right now and where you want to go.”

That has stuck with me and always will. He was so kind and genuine. I never had to second guess where we were at in our relationship. Which was a welcome thing after the things I had been through years prior.

I love this story of ours because it shows that you should NEVER judge someone. No matter what their past may have been. People change for the better daily.

I would not be the person I am today if it weren’t for a lot of people, but especially my wonderful husband.

I want to tell anyone out there who may be struggling because they haven’t found ‘the one’ yet, is to not worry. That person will come along when you LEAST expect them to. And fair warning, they will probably turn your world upside down, in a good way. ;)

Your husband or wife should be someone that you lean on. They should be your number one fan, biggest cheerleader, partner-in-crime and your best friend. I can tell my husband anything and not be afraid of being judged. I can count on him to be there for me when I need a shoulder to cry on or someone to vent to.

Life is better with your best friend right there at your side. I wouldn’t change marrying my husband after 2 months of dating at 21 years old for anything. J

Stay positive and always look for the good in people.