It was the summer of 2006 when Tara and Austin met.
Tara was just about to start her high school career and Austin had just received his driver’s license.
The two met at Crossroads Youth Center in Rock Falls, IL at a local rock show. He was playing guitar in one of the bands and she was there ready to reinvent herself in preparation for high school- in her mind, nothing
was more awesome than being a rocker-chick. Both clad in Converse Chuck Taylors and band tee’s, it could have been love at first sight,
Fast forward a year, and Tara's once friendly feelings for Austin turned into a
crush.
Who could blame her really?
Austin’s guitar-playing ability, lack of haircut and tight pants would’ve made any high school girl swoon. Tara started making excuses to hang out with Austin more and more.
The timing however, was just not yet right for the two. Austin went off to college at NIU and Tara moved on. Through the separation, the two stayed in contact by hanging out every once in awhile when he’d come home for breaks. And of course, she was always
there in the front row for his shows.
Finally
in the fall of 2011, a year after Tara had graduated from High School and Austin was single for just about the first time in his college career.
Austin invited Tara up to DeKalb for a party at his fraternity. Their old friendship certainly was
rekindled and so perhaps was an old spark. Austin invited Tara back two weeks later for homecoming weekend and again the following week for Halloween. The morning after the Halloween party, still clad
in their
costumes, Austin took Tara to Starbucks where they talked and laughed. Tara wondered to herself if she and Austin were on a first date.
She grew to love the friends and freedom DeKalb had to offer, and since she was spending most of her weekends there anyway, Tara decided that that December she would move there full-time to pursue makeup artistry school.
Austin and Tara grew increasingly closer every day. They spent much of their free time together and it was evident to all those around them that they were a “thing” but had yet to make it official.
Christmas
that year, the two traveled back to Sterling and Austin came to Tara’s house on Christmas eve to meet the
family. They spent the evening drinking Rumchata, watching Christmas Vacation and stayed up till the wee hours of the morning looking at the stars from Tara’s family’s hot tub.
New Years rolled around and they rang it in together.
They shared a kiss at midnight, and perhaps Austin would have made it official- but he isn’t one for clichés. FINALLY, on the night of January 22nd, 2012, Tara had had enough of tiptoeing around their
status. She gathered her courage (much of it of the liquid kind) and finally told Austin she had feelings for him and that she cherished their friendship - but for her, it was much more. Thankfully, Austin told Tara
that she was not just his best friend, but that he was in love with her as well - officially they were a couple.
A year later, after the two had graduated, they moved in with each other in Naperville, IL. They worked together through the growing pains of early adulthood and through the ups and downs...
In March of 2016, the two went on vacation together to Cocoa Beach, FL; a home away from home for Tara and her family.
Two days before their departure Austin worked up the courage to ask Tara’s father for her hand in marriage. Tara’s father, of course, was overjoyed and that evening Austin took Tara for a walk on the beach
and popped the question. Little did she know that he had also secretly told her parents and close family friends to discreetly hide on the beach to await the proposal, only to share the joy after the
deed was done. It was more than Tara could have ever hoped for.