High School Sweethearts
By Victoria Trahan
January 17, 2010

It was our junior year at Sam Houston High School. I needed a date to the homecoming dance. Mark was friends with all the same friends I had. Even though we had gone to school together for 10 years, we never really talked. But in 2005, it was different. We started to hang out in the courtyard at lunch, and eventually exchanged numbers. I then proceeded to call him all the time. I had never dated a football player before, but Mark was my type of guy because he liked to skateboard, play guitar, and listen to rock music. Our friendship grew over the two weeks preparing for the homecoming dance. On homecoming night, we ate dinner at D’Angelos restaurant, and then went to the Boardwalk. Looking over the lake on that hot and humid evening he asked me to officially be his girlfriend. We happily went to the dance as a new couple on September 17, 2005.
One year later, it was 2006. To celebrate our one year anniversary, we went back to where it all began. We had dinner at D’Angelos, and thought back to the year before when we first ate there for homecoming night. By this time, we were seniors in high school. I was so proud going to the Sam Houston football games on Friday night to watch my MVP defensive lineman. We had a lot of fun together in our senior year. By the time we graduated high school in May 2007, we had become a well-known item. Our peers were always saying we were going to get married one day. We went on our Senior Trip together with a large group of friends. We had so much together in Panama City Beach, Florida. It was one of those times we realized how strong and stable our relationship was, because we could balance having fun as a couple and having fun as individuals.
On September 17, 2007, we reached our two year anniversary. We were four long hours apart. I had decided to move to Monroe and attempt my undergraduate studies in pharmacy. Before I left, Mark and I exchanged what we like to call “pre-engagement rings.” My ring was a step up from the promise ring he’d given me seven months into the relationship. His ring is the same one he plans to wear as his wedding band today. We had a plan that he would move to Monroe after he attained his two-year degree from Sowela. We also decided that if our relationship could survive the distance and other struggles, we would know that it was meant to be. We didn’t like the distance, and I came home every other weekend to visit Mark and my family. My first college experience was a lot of fun, but I missed home.
I moved back home in May 2008 and enrolled at McNeese. Mark and I were pretty much inseparable. After being apart so much for one year, we never wanted to do that again. We practically lived together. Our lives, from family to friends, started to become one. By September 17, 2008, we were celebrating our three year anniversary. We always wanted to go to D’Angelos again, but it had perished in a fire.
For Spring Break 2009, we returned to Panama City Beach, Florida, with a small group of friends. Mark and I had been talking about engagement, but the last thing I expected was for him to propose on our spring break. We both love the beach, and there we were on April 13, 2009, enjoying the white sandy beach listening to the sound of the waves and feeling the cool night breeze. He told me he loved me, and asked if I loved him enough to marry him while surprising me with a sparkling diamond ring! Of course, I said yes. When we got home, I started anxiously planning the details of our wedding, little by little.
By the time we celebrated our four year anniversary, we had just moved into our 2 bedroom, 1 bath rent house in the city. We looked back and were kind of amazed that four years had already passed in what felt like such a short time. We know that has to be a good sign, because time flies when you’re having fun! Today, January 17, 2010, marks four years and four months of our relationship. We are four short months away from our wedding on May 22, 2010. I saw Mark in his tuxedo yesterday, and I felt so lucky to be marrying such a handsome guy who makes me happy. I look forward to our one year wedding anniversary in May 2011, because D’Angelos is open again and we can start celebrating a new anniversary there