Young and In Love

Anyone that's on my MySpace friends list knows I held a contest for couples in late January. The contest winners would be featured here on my blog, and he point of the contest was to find a couple with a great love story. I didn't judge the contestants in fear of being bias so I had three friends do the judging. The winners of the contest were China and Jacob.

While their story is sweet, I think their photos say so much more about the love between them.

My friend Rachel left this comment on one of their photos:
" They're a great example of what it looks like to be young and in love!!! :)"

And I agree! Their photo shoot was fun and light, took us less than an hour to get close to 200 great shots. I had such a hard time choosing my favs to display on both myspace and here in the blog. So with out further ado, here is a slide show of their photos (music is really cheesy, but it was the only "song" that was free and fit the length of the show, lol)

A lot of people requested to know what their story was, so I'm simply going to copy paste what China sent me as their entry for the contest....

"I have been fighting kidney issues my whole life, my mom abandoned me when I turned 16 and I was in a verbally and emotionally abusive relationship for almost a year when I first moved to Jacksonville for college. I was at rock bottom and was crying everyday, I had no place live once I ran from my ex, and I was sleeping on a different friends couch every night. Over the summer of 2006 I was supposed to move into a house with 3 other girls, it was perfect, finally my chance to get out! I saved every cent I had to pay the security deposit and a week before we were supposed to move in one of the girls fell through with her plans to move in and we lost the house and our money. It was horrible, just something else to get me down. Luckily the dorms could fit me in to a room and at the last minute, after moving house to house, a friend helped me move into the dorms. On move in day I ran into this girl who was my neighbor my freshman year and she asked if I was interested in going to a bbq the next day for a friend’s 20th birthday. I said yes, even though I had no intentions of going. I wasn't up for it. I wasn't ready to meet new people. I still had so many insecurities and didn’t think I could handle it. The next day at the time she said she would she came knocking on my door and I didn't answer. OF COURSE my roommate was coming home right at the same time and opened the door. I was forced to go. While there, the day only got worse. A few girls that had sent me in the wrong direction years past were there. Everyone who was there had known each other since middle school and did not need a new person in their group, and felt like an outcast, I was about to leave when all of the sudden I ran into him. Jacob. He said to me, "where are you running off to? I love your tattoos" and it went from there. I thought he was younger than he was and a little immature, but he was cute. We ended spending the whole day together and He ended up asking for my number and we went out to dinner the next day. He has never and I repeat never had a serious relationship. Yea I know. Not only not serious, but his last girlfriend was in 6th grade NO JOKE!. I loved him from the beginning. Things weren’t going well for more than 2 dates when my past came back to haunt me. One of his friends got ear of a rumor that had circled around from my ex and all his friends were against us being together and he slowly backed off. I felt like I was never going to get over my past! A few weeks later the same girl invited me to dinner and Jacob was there. He asked me to go for a walk on the beach and that’s where he unloaded how bad he felt and asked for me to forgive him. We took it slow, went on dates and to a few parties together and on September 24th, his 20th birthday, after everyone sang him happy birthday he jumped up on a chair and said "OK listen! You know what I really want for my birthday? For China to be my girlfriend" I could have died. I cried, like a little girl, and we've been together ever since. He treats me like a princess. It’s funny because now almost a year and a half later all his friends have accepted us. We just moved in together on our 1 year anniversary and now every issue that has come my way I don’t have to battle it alone and that is why I know I am so lucky to have him and even after all this time we still laugh and play and love more than we knew was possible. He never knew what he was getting into when we first started, but the important part is even now, knowing what he’s gotten into, he is still here. He has brought my mom and I back to a good place and even though I thought I had been though it all he has taught me so many things and has given me a reason to wake up and smile each and every day. He has saved my life."