When Karin met Markus

WARNING: This post contains romantic drivel. Don’t read if heartbroken or otherwise have an aversion to lovey-dovey crap.

Friday was Valentine’s Day, but it’s not really celebrated here, so never mind that. Today, however, is much more special – it’s mine and Markus’ engagement day! On this day, two years ago, I asked him to marry me, and got a “yes” in return. :heart:

In honour of this day I’m going to tell you how we met:

In the spring of 2006 I had, on little more than a whim, applied for an education program called “Interactive Media Design”. It wasn’t university, just some post-secondary program, but it sounded interesting enough in the brochure. Mostly I just needed something to do with my life, and when you live in a country with free education you might as well take advantage of it. So I applied and got accepted, and in August that same year I found myself in a classroom at the local campus.

When I arrived on this first day the classroom door stood open, so I walked in and took a seat. I was the first to arrive, which allowed me to study my new classmates as they came dropping in.
Most of them seemed like perfectly normal, mainstream people, only a few distinguished themselves from the rest. One of the girls looked like a proper model, tall and thin with a stunning wide smile and long blonde hair. Another girl had bright red hair and a cute bag with an anime print on it. Two guys talked to each other with a Finnish accent.

One of the last people to walk in was a guy who, when I saw him, made me give off a little sigh of relief. He was wearing a washed-out Helloween t-shirt, trashed jeans with chains hanging from the belt, broad leather cuff bracelets around his wrists… clearly a metalhead. Which meant there was at least one person in the room I obviously had something in common with!

First day was just information and a tour around campus, so nobody got to talk much, but the day after it was time for introductions. Everyone was supposed to stand up in front of the class and tell a little about themselves. I bloody hate that… I have lots of hobbies and interests, but the second you ask me to “tell a little about yourself” I immediately forget everything I’ve ever said or done in my entire life. I was also sitting by the first desk on the first row, so I figured the teacher would probably ask me to go first. Didn’t I learn already in elementary school to always sit in the back?
But then the metalhead got up from his seat (unlike me he was smart enough to sit in the far back) and said that he could start, if that’s ok with everyone?
Of course it was.

He walked up to the whiteboard and scribbled a cartoony figure on it – then turned to the class, pointed at the figure and said “This is Markus”. Next he drew a golf club and a ping pong racket while saying “Markus likes to play sports, especially golf and table tennis”…
The guy spent the next 5 minutes drawing a comic of his life on the board, describing his hobbies and family and such. He was also insanely funny and made everyone laugh. Real laughs too, not just polite snickers. I really wish I had a video or some photos of it because it was seriously awesome to watch! It is to this day one of the best and most memorable presentations I’ve ever seen – of anything, ever.
Every presentation after that was pretty much useless, I can’t remember what anyone else said or did, including me.

After that first day Markus pretty much took on the role of “class clown”. Not in the annoying high school kind of way, but in the sense of always having a smile on his face and making people laugh. True to my introverted personality I didn’t took on any role, I just sat in class doing my work and trying to remember to at least pretend to be social.

Yes, I know it’s the second time in a short while I’ve quoted Doctor Who. Shut up. :P That quote describes exactly how I fell for Markus, so it’s valid.

It wasn’t love at first sight, to be perfectly honest it wasn’t even attraction at first sight. I was dating someone else at the time and even though Markus’ first impression was rather striking, I didn’t see him as anything other than just a really nice guy. He didn’t think much of me either at first, we were just classmates. But that slowly changed over the course of our first school year together.

In the beginning I thought his niceness was just, you know, him being nice. They say everyone is nice for 5 minutes and I think that’s true. People tend to put on their best behaviour when introduced to someone new, and then the more you get to know them the more the facade cracks and you learn who they really are. Slowly you get to see their faults and weaknesses, some worse than others. But over time I realized that Markus really was a genuinely amazing person.

I also noticed his great personality came with other perks as well. Like his sense of humour, and that he liked metal and video games and nerdy fantasy stuff just like me. And… wasn’t he kinda cute after all? How did I miss that before? Slowly but steadily, my cold cynical heart melted. :)

For some reason he liked me too. I still don’t understand how I managed to win his heart, but apparently I did.

We officially became a couple at Sweden Rock Festival in June 2007. I had planned on going with my then boyfriend, but we had broken up a couple of months earlier and when I learned that Markus was going there with some of his friends it was decided that I would go with them. Just as friends. Or something. Yeah.
Apparently you can’t spend a week in a tent, at a festival full of sunshine, and beer, and music, and not end up confessing your love for each other. ;)

Now it’s been almost 7 years, 2 of which engaged, and I couldn’t be happier. We’re humans, which means we’re not perfect, and our relationship isn’t perfect, but we have a good thing going here.
He’s the guy who remembers what food you like or what music you listen to and will ask you about it the next time you meet. He always notice if someone has got a haircut or is wearing new shoes. He is always warm and generous and attentive, and he care so much about the people around him. And I’m not just talking about how he treats me, he is this way with everybody.
He’s the best person I’ve ever met, and I believe having him in my life has made me a better person too.

We just need to get our lazy asses off the wagon and deal with this wedding thing, haha!

TL;DR – We met in school, took 2 semesters to figure out we liked each other, went to a festival as “just friends” and came back a couple. Great success!