Proud to Dairy blogger Jessica Folkema recounts the story of how she met the love of her life and came to live happily ever after with her “Dairy Man.” Ours was not love at first sight.
Dairy Man (DM) was a friend of my college housemate. The first time I remember him was when he came to my door looking for her.
“Is Amanda here?”
“No, sorry.”
“OK. Hey, would you like to get coffee sometime?”
“Um. What was your name again?”
DM wants me to point out that I’m oversimplifying this exchange, but that was the gist. He wasn’t on my radar until that moment, even though his friends had been pushing him in the direction of Amanda’s single (and ravishing) housemate for a while. I was startled, but I said yes.
So we went out for coffee. Hands cupped around warm mugs, we talked comfortably for a couple of hours. I came home and told a friend, “It was fun. He’s really nice. But there weren’t any sparks.”
Fast forward six months.
DM had become one of my best friends. We studied together, spent hours engaged in witty repartee on instant messaging (#90schild) and resisted the less-than-subtle attempts of our friends to get us together.
Well, at least I did.
I let that poor boy chase me for the better part of a year, but I just wasn’t ready. I was selfish. I couldn’t get over the farmer thing. We were constantly embroiled in typical 20-something college drama deserving of a reality show. Will she? Won’t she? It was exhausting – and nobody got a rose.
Then I got accepted to a semester program in Chicago. DM’s frustration with my coquettish ways had reached a boiling point. We had a huge fight before I left – and decided not to talk for a while.
Chicago was an incredible experience. I shared a studio apartment with a bed in the wall and a kitchen in the closet. I tried Indian food. I interned at the Museum of Contemporary Art by day and spent my nights going to plays, ballets, museums and modern dance performances in empty swimming pools (just as weird as it sounds). I loved everything about the city.
But something still tugged on my heart.
Every morning as I walked the 15 blocks to my office, I talked to my sister on the phone. Many months later, Mandy told me I mentioned Dairy Man in almost every single call. I said I missed him. That I wondered what he was doing. That it was killing me not to talk to him.
I had escaped Michigan for the big city, but I hadn’t escaped him. PD
What did Jessica decide to do? Read the rest of this post on Modern Farm Wife.
PHOTO: Jessica Folkema recalls her personal story of how a big city girl unexpectedly ended up a Michigan dairy farmer’s wife. Photo courtesy Ashley Folkema Photography.
