Read this incredible story of Little Rock news anchor, Courtney Collins. We are proud to publish her story and are looking forward to hear from you.
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At age 24, I had my whole life planned. I was engaged to the guy I’d spent six years getting to know. Mature life choice? Check! I was going to be married at 25. Reasonably, I’d have a few years to sink into my new, wifely role before the child bearing days pressed in. Kid one at 29, kid two at
32… perfect! I’m young enough to have peppy mom energy but old enough to avoid mom-out-of-college syndrome. By the time the children are both out of the nest, I’m 50. I have plenty of creative energy but a respectable amount of wisdom and life experience.
It’s so refreshing to know, at age 24, exactly how life will unfold. What’s equally invigorating, but less than pleasant, is when that entire plan heartbreakingly unravels in a matter of weeks.
I met a boy my freshman year of college and fell in love. We were nuts about each other in that giddy, 18-year-old way. We stuck together through four years of school, the post-college job search, and dutifully kept things going long-distance when our fledgling careers threw us in different states. We were happy and we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. When he proposed after five years and nine months of dating, I was ready to take the next step. I said yes, we set a date, we picked our wedding party. I couldn’t wait. Everything was going just like we had planned.
And that’s why I suddenly felt like the lone woman on a sinking ship when my fiancé asked if we could postpone things.
He had just started working as a sportscaster in Florida and I was finishing up my reporting job in Texas, so he wondered if we could wait until I moved to Fort Myers before nailing down a firm timeline. Let’s evaluate how we do as a “see each other every day” kind of couple before we set a date. Next came the questions. “Are we going to go out anymore once we’re married? Are we going to have a lot of boring, stay-at-home movie nights? Are you going to want me to wake up early on my days off?” With each loaded sentence of the interrogation, reality began to set in. The new job in Florida was going well and before he said “I do,” he wanted to see how I fit into the new picture. I, the girl he’d loved for nearly 6 years was being auditioned.
As stung and sad as I felt, some wise voice inside said I’d already been his “see each other every day” girlfriend in college. That voice whispered that I was not unreasonably opposed to nights at the bar and didn’t have an unusually strong affinity for Blockbuster. And hey! I liked to sleep late too! That voiced warned me that moving to Florida to prove myself could be disastrous. He wasn’t who I thought he was, so I summoned my courage and called things off.
We were both sick over it, but not enough to budge. I wasn’t willing to accept a demotion from fiancée to girlfriend; he wasn’t willing to move forward as planned. So I returned the ring and called the country club to cancel, and we began the slow, raw business of telling our friends and family the bad news.
Once everything was undone, the worst hit me. What the hell was I going to do? My now ex-fiancé had been in the picture too long; he was my first real boyfriend! We talked six times a day and we’d celebrated six birthdays together. He held my hair back after too many shots on New Year’s Eve. We were going to name our kids Jack and Katherine. How do you press reset after six years and start over?
At first, I just didn’t. We behaved as a lot of 24 year-old exes do, and talked too much. We still checked in and chatted. When something bad happened at work, I shot him an e-mail. When my apartment flooded, I tearfully called him up. Sure we weren’t engaged anymore but he was still the guy I turned to.
The one thing I can say about fate is it does, eventually, make an appearance. I spent the first ten weeks of my break-up telling myself that one day, my ex might change. He certainly seemed determined to win me back. He called a ton, stroked my ego, and promised he was trying to get over his “marriage issues.” He said he was nowhere near ready to date because he couldn’t stop thinking about me. He sent me drunken text messages and still occasionally blurted out declarations of love. I even romanticized the idea of us reuniting one day, older and wiser. Imagine my surprise and subsequent nausea when my college roommate called and told me that my ever attentive ex was dating someone, and had been, since two weeks after we called things off.
I was done. I called him up, said I was onto him, and asked him to leave me alone. It was like someone sprayed my face with cold water, handed me a towel and said, “do you get it now?” I did, and truthfully… I was relieved. Now I could open my mind to the thought of someone new. Someone who would run down the aisle with me. Someone who was honest. Someone who looked forward to a night at home, as long as it was a night at home with me.
Despite the crap cards I’d been dealt, I was feeling slightly optimistic. I had a lot of fun in the months following my epiphany. My friends and I took wild road trips and treated every random Wednesday like Mardi Gras. I slowly started to date, though it wasn’t exactly a parade of “Mr. Rights.” One guy had a few too many cocktails and actually told me during a party at his house that the National Weather Service was predicting ice, and I would have to sleep over. Not quite soul mate material. I was happy to be out there, but a little low that I hadn’t met anyone special.
After six months of single life, I landed a new job. I was moving to Little Rock to report for the NBC affiliate. New gig, new city, semi-new status. I was excited and terrified.
Not even a few days into life in Arkansas, I locked eyes with a 6’3” fellow reporter. He had gorgeous blond hair and sigh-worthy blue eyes but more importantly, an intelligent light that shone behind them. He was from Dallas, smiled easily, and was nice to even the dorkiest co-worker. He couldn’t get enough of his 4 year-old nephew, played guitar, loved dogs and just so happened to have read all the same books I couldn’t shut up about. We became fast friends. By the time he finally asked me out (a painstaking 14 days after we met), I practically screamed yes. Here was someone special.
We fell breathlessly in love. It’s funny, we’ve been joined at the hip for more than two years now… not exactly an eternity… but I can barely remember what life was like without him. Our relationship is as real as it comes. We’ve had some hard times; he unexpectedly lost his father three months after our first date. I’ve had my own issues rear their nasty little heads; any girl who’s been semi-jilted can tell you that insecurity is a guaranteed parting gift. But the amazing thing is, every hurdle thrown in our path, we managed to jump.
I’m now 27. I don’t know when I’m going to have my first child and I’m not sure how many I’ll have. But there are some things I do know. I know the man I’m with now is the man I’ll be with forever. If he doesn’t change one hair on his head, I’ll be happy with who he is for the rest of my life. And I am absolutely positive that making the toughest decision of my young life three years ago was the best thing that ever happened to me.
Courtney and Pete Thompson
The kind, smart, funny, talented man I’m with now proposed on live television. He walked onto our news set in the middle of a show I was anchoring and told everyone watching that I was the woman for him. He got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife. Saying yes was the easiest thing I’ve ever done.
So if you’re broken hearted and angry, let yourself be. If you feel crushed and lost, that’s all right. But don’t let a sad twist in your story be the end of your story. Remember the sad 24 year-old that felt all alone when the guy she loved let her down. Sometimes in the midst of pain, confusion and heartache you stumble toward what you were meant to find.
In my case, I found hope. Who knew hope was a tall, handsome Pisces named Pete Thompson?
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Here you can view the video where Courtney’s fiance proposed live on air http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC1vzGq4kIo
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