Samantha Cazeau

EDUC 204 C20W

Summer 2019

This I Believe

I met the love of my life January of 2016. It hit suddenly and was utterly unexpected. At the
time, I was planning on serving a mission for my church the following fall. We met at a random
game night hosted by his neighbors and some friends of mine. He had just moved to town the
day before. When I first saw him, he was walking in with his brother who, funnily enough, I
thought I would have a better chance with.
For the next month or so, we saw each other periodically. Eventually, he got the nerve to ask for
my number. If you ask him, he set up the first date. In all reality, it was me. I got tired of waiting.
After that, we fell fast. Within two months, we had decided to get married. This decision threw
us both off-guard, but we knew it to be right. We decided to go tell our parents separately before
we got engaged. He went home to Twin Falls to talk to his parents. They were concerned but
after about a month, they were on board. My parents, not so much. My mother lived in Pocatello
(where we were living at the time) and my father was deployed with the military in Texas. I went
to my mother’s house and asked to talk with her. When I told her our decision to be married, I
got quite the earful. Next, she facetimed my father and my other ear filled quickly. After 2 hours,
I was officially disowned.
I remember going home that night and crying my eyes out. I was about to plan a wedding and
start a family without my family. I don’t know what I would have done without him. As he held
me that night, he looked down at me and asked, “Do you love me?” Shocked I looked up and
replied, “Of course.” Then he said something that kept us going for months to come. “And I love
you. What else really matters?”
Once we were engaged two months later (it took a while as I was working that summer at a scout
camp), I again went to my mother to share the news. After another hour of lectures from her and
my father, I went home and cried again.
To this, he asked me again: “Do you love me?”
“Of course.”
“And I love you. What else really matters?”
Picking a wedding date was the hardest thing to do. We thought September, but that didn’t work
due to another family wedding. Then October. Nope. Then November. Nope. Then December.
Nope. No matter what, my family always had some reason it wouldn’t work. Yes, they had
disowned me, but they were still family, right? We decided on Spring Break in March and that
was final. If they decided they couldn’t be there, that was out of our hands. I cried again that
night. And that night the same conversation ensued.
“Do you love me?”
“Of course.”
“And I love you. What else really matters?”
The following 8 months before the wedding was stressful. We had invites, venues, decorations,
and so much more to coordinate while both working 60 plus hours a week to afford the wedding
on our own. Relations with my family become more toxic. At one point, they even tried to have
me arrested for backing into another car and driving off (which never happened).
Again, he asked, “Do you love me?”
“Of course.”
“And I love you. What else really matters?”
About a month and a half before the wedding, my mother came to me wanting to help. As we
had been planning for the previous 7 months, most things were ready to go. Despite me having
reservations on letting her into our wedding, I did. I learned quickly that I shouldn’t have. She
threw a fit about invitations, tablecloths, my dress I got without her, and everything she could
possibly think of.
Again: “Do you love me?”
“Of course.”
“And I love you. What else really matters?”
I wish I could report the day of was better. My family was late to the ceremony, complained
about the lunch-in, and my parents were on the verge of a divorce. All came crashing down that
day. By the end, we went home before leaving for our honeymoon, my husband had to rip my
dress off me (as it had ripped and I had been sewn into it during the reception), and I cried.
“Do you love me?”
“Of course.”
“And I love you. What else really matters?”
That love is what got me threw it. Him. By my side for all of it. He never turned to run or
hesitated. He loved me deeper than anyone before had. We stood together in love and on a united
front. Due to that, we are two and a half years into our marriage, and while we are still young, we
are united. The love that kept us together during our engagement is thriving and has guided us
through many, many more trials and tribulations. But, we love each other, and as we have
learned, nothing else really matters.