Jin and I first met in...middle school. I was 12 and in 7th grade at the time. He was 15 and in 8th. We had a few class blocks like Gym and Study Hall together, but for the majority of that school year we didn't give much thought to each other. It was a rough year for me, some typical growing pains mixed with my mom's bi-polar husband, and then he went missing in March of that year. At some point during school we had the Jump Rope for Heart marathon going on, and I rocked it. Afterwards, a random guy came up to me teasing about how he'll beat me next time and surely it was just a fluke I won that time. And, that was how we met, really.
Eventually we just started talking at every given moment. Constantly during gym, during study hall we would pass letters, in the halls and at lunch. I did most of the talking, I guess, which was a bit odd because I was a shy kid. He was always there, ready to listen and cheer me up by talking about his weird dreams and typical teenage boy stunts. I found it hard to believe there was "normal" at that point in my life, but he definitely made me feel completely normal and down to earth. I wasn't free floating anymore. And even when they eventually found Paul in the lake, Jin continued to be my rock. (Fun fact, this is when Zander came into my life as well).
Then the school year ended, and I shut everything out again. My mom was already dating a new guy and things at home slowly got worse. I wasn't allowed to go out, and my phone calls were limited. But instead of trying to take what I could get, I shut down completely. I refused to talk to any of my friends, I ignored all of his calls, and for the next two years, I did nothing more than eat, sleep, and go to school. And then in my 9th grade year, I didn't even go to school. I homeschooled.
I'm not sure what the switch was. Maybe I grew up, maybe I matured, maybe I just needed time to work on me before dealing with other people. But I actually went out of my way to look him up on Myspace one day(after 2 or 3 years), and then spent the next TWO WEEKS debating whether or not I should message him. I figured he would hate me, be pissed off and never want to talk to me again. But I figured the best I could do was apologize.
And the rest is history. He was living in Phoenix by then, but he moved to Southaven so we could attempt some sort of a regular relationship. Three years later, in February of 2011, I moved out of my mom's house and we got married.
There's a lot of in-between filler, of course, but that's about the gist of it.