Love and Marriage | About Us

SURPRISE!

Since our anniversary is rapidly approaching, this month on TJE, I will be spending a lot of time talking about 'Love & Marriage'. I thought it would be fun to do a series surrounding my husband and I to celebrate our love and how happy and blessed I feel to have him in my life. I will be talking about good times, bad times, funny times, and every time in between, and my husband will make his second TJE appearance this month as well! I know, I know, y'all love him more than me so just wait, it'll be another post that is REAL.. no sugar coating! I'm super excited to share this area of my life with you guys in more depth, so let's get the ball rolling.. shall we?

Not many people are fortunate enough to be in love with their best friend. I feel so blessed to have the best of both worlds. Someone who I can talk to about any and everything, someone who inspires me to chase my dreams, and someone I can laugh and joke with like we are teenagers. It's seriously one of the best feelings ever. If you're new here, you may not know much about Marcus and I's story, so I thought a cool way to kick off this series would be to share a little bit about us! Most of our friends and family already know the story of how we met, but I thought I would share it on here for those of you who many not know. These were the stories we posted on our wedding website, so they will be our different perspectives on how we met, how we fell in love, and ultimately, how we became a couple on November 9, 2009 (GEEZ, we have almost been together 8 years!).

Our Love Story - His Perspective

I first remember meeting Jamaria Olivia Bowen in High School at NSA. I was a junior and she was a freshman in the fall of 2006. We were introduced by a guy on the MTA bus. I feel as though he did this as a joke because I had been in a shaky relationship throughout matriculation in high school. I don’t remember what was first said, but I remember how I felt when we first met. My first impression was Wooow she is beautiful. As I got to know her personality I began to realize that it was not just about her outer appearance, but her personality was just as beautiful. I believe we had a connection from day one. Although we did not date for the first several years of knowing each other, we became really good friends and even considered ourselves to be best friends. In the beginning of our fresh friendship, I did attempt to get her in a relationship with me, however, that was shut down very fast because she wanted to date someone else and she claims that she knew I wasn’t ready to be in relationship with her because of my shaky past relationship. I digress, Its really not that important to our story but I always like to point that one detail out. So as the years went by, we remained really close as I transitioned to college and started that new chapter in my life. She was there to see all my many changes in women. So I began to think to myself, there is only one woman in my life that has remained consistent, and there was only one variable that didn’t change, and that was Jamaria. She had truly become my best friend and someone that I connected with mentally, physically, and spiritually. I remember having a conversation with one of my Frat brothers, Micah Wells, and asking him what should I do because I had begun to think that we could be more than friends and weighing the pros and cons of making it happen. The biggest challenge we came up with is if we didn’t work, our friendship would never be the same. I came to the conclusion that I didn’t mind taking that risk. So I was in Ohio and I sent Jamaria a text telling her I needed to talk to her. In my mind I knew I wanted her to be the one and only woman in my life. So she called me and I expressed to her how I felt about her.  I told her that she was my best friend and someone that I could see myself building a life with, and that I think we should take a chance on us. The rest is history! I’m so glad me and my LB Micah Wells had that conversation and I'm glad I had the courage to do it. This turned into the best decision of my life, because now I get to marry my best friend! The most beautiful woman inside and out that I know and there is no one else I'd rather spend the rest of my life with.

Our Love Story - My Perspective

DISCLAIMER: Our love story spanned over years, and I like to give details, so I apologize in advance if it gets a little lengthy!

HOW WE MET: As most of you already know, Marcus and I graduated from the same high school, Nashville School of the Arts. The time I remember actually meeting him was on the MTA bus after school one day. This guy (who will remain nameless) introduced us as a joke. He felt like I was a little shy freshman and I needed help to meet guys, so he took it upon himself to introduce me to Marcus. It was extremely awkward to say the least; especially seeing that I already knew Marcus was in an on-again off-again relationship with someone at the time. Basically, his introduction did not affect me at all; I just now knew that this guy’s name was Marcus Johnson.
BEST FRIENDS: Two years went by, Marcus graduated from NSA in 2007, and we had somehow become best friends! I wasn’t feeling him in a “romantic” type of way, he was just my friend, and we could have conversations for hours about anything and I wouldn’t be bored. I remember Marcus coming to my 17th birthday party at my house, and he played Happy Birthday for me on his saxophone. I can truly say this was the day that my family fell in love with him. My boyfriend at the time was there, and my family kept accidentally calling him Marcus, it was so embarrassing!
THE YEAR IT ALL CHANGED: Fast-forward to 2009, this was the end of my first semester as a freshman at UT, and Marcus was a junior at TSU. I was in Nashville for my Fall Break and Marcus had been telling me he needed to talk to me about something. I was leaving Target with my Mom, and I received like 6 text messages from Marcus basically with him telling me that he liked me and wanted to see if we could work as a couple. I was SO WEIRDED OUT! I mean him being my best friend; I knew SO MUCH about him (probably too much). I told him that I needed to think about it and I would let him know. I was thinking, “This is too much! Just wait until I tell my friends and my mom!”
CLUELESS JAMARIA: Clearly I’m the only person in the world that didn’t explore the possibility of us dating. I mean sure, Marcus has always been attractive, but I’m the type of lady that it’ll take a bit more than looks to capture my attention, so this thought had not crossed my mind. Everyone I told about this confession was happy about it and I was confused! So here I am, clueless and confused, but because of all of the positivity surrounding his name, I was starting to really consider it.
THE BEST DECISION OF MY LIFE: I ended up going back to school after fall break, and then I came back to Nashville maybe a week or two later for TSU’s Homecoming. This would be the first time Marcus & I saw each other since he told me he wanted to be my boyfriend. AWKWARD! After the football game, he asked me to follow him to his apartment so we could talk, and I was so nervous. I was so nervous that I literally walked-in, sat down for maybe 6 minutes, and then I was like “Well, I have to go.” I can’t even tell you if we talked about anything or just stared into space! I wonder if he knew I was nervous? Anyway, he walked me to my car and right before I got in, he kissed me. I guess this was when I realized there was a spark between us because I had butterflies in my stomach my whole drive home. I got back to Knoxville the next day, and I talked to my best friend Chanquilla about it. I will never forget this conversation because I can honestly say, that this was what gave me the courage to take that step. That night, November 9, 2009, I sent Marcus a relationship request on Facebook, and the rest is history!

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So that is our love story in a nutshell. Pretty sweet huh? :) Honestly, back in high school, I never would have thought I would end up married to him. I knew we would be friends forever, but his wife? I guess that just goes to show that God has a plan for us all and WE are not really in control of anything. All I can say is thank you God! You knew what I needed!

A few more cool facts about us:

• Marcus is two years older than me and I'll never let him forget it.
•  We were in a long distance relationship for the first four years and it was so hard, but so worth it. You can read my post about how to handle long distance relationships here.
• Marcus and I both were raised by our mother and grandmother in Nashville.
• Our first official date was on the track at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. We literally just walked and talked for hours. I was SO nervous because it felt so different. He was my best friend and I wasn't used to him being my boyfriend AT ALL.
•  Marcus is a financial advisor by day (if you need one, let me know!), and a musician by night. He plays the saxophone and he's amazing!
• I have decided that whenever we have kids, all of them will have 'M' names because I want all of their initials to be MJ. :) 

Okay guys, that's all for now. If you'd like to take a peek at our wedding website to see our proposal story, our engagement photos, and much more, you can click here. Stay tuned for the rest of this month for more #loveandmarriage posts from me and my hubby! I'm super excited to share with y'all!

Thank you for reading! xo