Salad Days: Chapter One: One world, two worlds

Preface: Omar and I have a very long, interesting, wonderful, long, long, long, love story. Since there are between 50 and 100 people a day that read this blog, and we are asked all the time how we met, which turns into a 1-3 hour story (depending on who is telling it), Ive decided to share it with you, in chapters. Thank you for taking an interest in our life, it means the world to us.

Without further adieu, Chapter one:

Silverado, circa 2001

Our story started together and apart. We both went to Silverado high school in 2000. That same year I met Myles, my first real boyfriend. As far as we know, Omar and I did not meet in high school. However, I did have Spanish class with his girlfriend, and I remember telling her that he was a loser and she should break up with him. And, he kind of was. And so was I. He was heavily into drugs, and neither one of us had much regard for anyone but ourselves. We were both losers, and in our own ways we lost everything. I lost myself in the many many people I dated, cheated on, and broke up with. Omar was as reckless as I was. We were both desperate to fill the voids in ourselves and did it in as many ways as we could. I was in theatre and thrived off of being the center of attention. Omar was a band geek, turned cool kid. He was popular because he knew how to party hard and made out with a lot of girls. He went to Young Life stoned. I wanted nothing to do with God. We were a match made in heaven.

A Midsummer Nights Dream/ perfect visual of my high school experience, circa 2002

I went to Coronado the next year. Somewhere between my first day at Coronado and the day I graduated, I met my best friend, made some of the worst decisions I have ever made, broke up with Myles, and found Jesus. Not in that order. For fun, I got drunk and stole from K-Mart. Then, in October 2002, I decided to hand my life over to Jesus. Omar made the same decision around the same time. Coincidence much? At this point our lives were completely separate, but, without our knowledge, our worlds were about to collide.

Whitney and I, circa 2002

There is a relevant side story that should be interjected here. Whitney. We hated eachother in seventh grade, ironically both moved to the other side of the city and ended up at the same high school. Through some accidental circumstances, we started hanging out. Our bond was unbreakable, and we did everything together. Then, she found Josh and I found Jesus. She went to church with me a few times and I prayed and prayed that she, too, would surrender her life to God and we could embark on this adventure together. She didn’t, and we drifted apart. In that time I started college and went to Europe. When I came back from Europe, I got a phone call from my long lost best friend. “Allie, you should come work at Tropical Smoothie with me, oh yeah, and by the way I am a Young Life leader now, and a Christian.”

So, I did. I had just come out of a stage in my life where I was casually dating every cute boy I met almost simultaneously, and it was not working very well.

And while working with Whitney, I met a guy named Shaun. He was a Christian who helped lead worship at a church, and he adored me. He guarded his heart, but poured out his love, and in turn, showed me what it looked like to have a real relationship. You know, the kind where you don’t make out with every person you meet and actually care about the heart of the person you’re dating. He prayed for his wife every night, whether it was me or not. Turns out, God showed me that he had other plans for my life, and we broke up. But I learned from Shaun something vital to my life; hearts are valuable. I decided at that point not to kiss or date anyone until I knew I was going to marry them. Around that time, I met a group of people that loved God and loved people, and after almost a year of praying, I decided to be a part of Young Life.