Our Story - Making Decisions

To continue our story of how we came to be.... 

We started things out slow by just dating about once a week for the next month. We both were in kind of the same situation. Both on the verge of graduating and deciding what to do next. Ryan was applying for jobs, literally all across the country and I was in the process of applying to graduate schools and waiting to hear back. We continued to date over the last month of school.

We both really liked each other so we continued dating. We both heard back from jobs and graduate schools about the same time. I had been accepted into University of Utah and Idaho State University. I was a little sad that I hadn't gotten into my two top choices, BYU and Utah State, but I was excited that I would at least be going to grad school.

Ryan had gotten a few job offers, one with a huge company... Proctor & Gamble out in Ohio. It was the most prestigious offer that anyone received in his program. When he had flown out and interviewed for the job he really liked the big city feel and wanted to take the job.

I was debating on which of the 2 programs was best for me. I really wanted to go to the U of U because it was ranked the best program out of all 4 I applied for, but it was more expensive and I would have to stay the summer in Utah in order to get my Utah residency. If I went to ISU I could go home for the summer and work for the BLM fighting fires again where I knew I would make 2-3 times the money I would make just waiting tables at Olive Garden during the summer.

I was so indecisive that I was almost making myself sick with worry. I prayed and pondered and weighed the pros and cons of each. For about 2 weeks I did this until finally I asked my home teachers to give me a blessing. For some reason I thought that in their blessing that I would get a clear answer, but they simply blessed me to choose what I thought was best and that my Heavenly Father would be supportive with either decision. I guess that's one thing I've always been afraid of is not necessarily making a bad decision but making the best decision.

So I stepped back and looked at the bigger picture, setting school aside. I decided that living in Pocatello for two years did not really excite me at all, not to mention I wouldn't really have any friends there. Sure it would be closer to home, but the cons seriously outweighed the pros.

I know what you're thinking, well what about Ryan? To be honest I had the worst feeling about leaving Utah for the summer to fight fires, because I knew that if I left for the summer that things might not have worked out between us and I was really anxious to see where things were going in our relationship. So I decided to stay the summer in Provo and go to the U of U in the fall for graduate school.

Back to Ryan's side of the story. He couldn't have wished for a better job or offer from Proctor & Gamble. Within just a few years he could have easily been making a six figure salary, but for some reason he didn't feel great about it. He loves Salt Lake for many reasons, particularly because his whole family lives here. Despite this he really wanted to accept the job. However when he prayed about it, he got a definite no, which kind of surprised him. But being the humble and obedient man that he is, he turned down the job and accepted a job in Salt Lake for the summer.

After graduation we discussed our relationship and what we wanted and agreed to continue dating through the summer. I could only bear to stay in Provo for about a month and a half before I put my housing contract up on Craigslist and started looking for housing in Salt Lake. Our relationship was really taking off and we were getting tired of driving 40 minutes back and forth 3-4 times a week. I figured that I would be moving up to Salt Lake eventually for the Fall so why wait? Luckily I was able to transfer up to the Murray Olive Garden and maintain about the same hours a week for work.

Looking back at all of this, it is just simply amazing how things just seemed to fall right into place and worked out the way that it was meant to. Ryan knew he was supposed to turn down that job offer in Ohio and I knew that I wasn't supposed to go back home to Idaho for the summer and go to ISU. The Lord works in mysterious ways and I believe he helped bring Ryan and I together.