Erin Szoch

Feb 6, 20189 min read

Forever Started at a Fraternity Party

This is where it all began. My first college football game with a guy that I had no idea would take over my world. But first let me give you a little more background information...

I met Bobby the first weekend out in college in August 2014. I went out with my soccer friends to go "frat hopping" at Georgia Tech. We started at a fraternity that my friend's boyfriend was a part of. It was kind of dead, but one of the guys came up to me to introduce himself. His one line was "Hey, I am the president here." At this point, I was thinking "is that suppose to impress me?" So, I looked at my friends with the "can we leave" look?

We left to go to another fraternity, which had a party going on. I thought finally let the college experience begin. Boy was I wrong. lol. Some drunk guy grabbed me and started dancing on me. My eyes were super wide and I looked at my one friend and mouthed "help." So she grabbed me and I basically ran out of there. At this point I am just ready to go back to campus.

My roommate at the time was also with us and said "wait can we just stop at TKE I have a family friend that goes there and I want to say hey." I was like okay, but this is the last one. Little did I know my life was about to change.

We walk into the yard of TKE and it was pretty relaxed, but I noticed a guy sitting on the deck behind the bar thinking "dang he is pretty cute." We walked up on the deck and my roommate started asking around if people knew her friend. When I turned my head that cute guy was gone. I was sort of disappointed. Until right when I turned around again, he was right there in front of me. He looked at me and said "hey you're really pretty."

We started talking and one of his fraternity brothers (and his roommate) came up and introduced himself. Not long after he came back asking if I remembered his name. Now if you know me, you know I am not a person to remember names, I remember faces. So, I responded I am so sorry I don't, I am so bad at names. So he messed with me, but then the cute guy asked "do you even remember my name?" Lol I was so embarrassed when I said to him "no, I am so sorry." He said "wow maybe I should just go if you don't even remember my name." I was like "no no no, I promise I am having fun talking to you I just suck at names." At this moment I remembered Bobby. I think we talked for about an hour before my roommate came back from meeting up with her family friend. We exchange numbers and off I went.

I got back to campus around 3am, and my phone went off because I got a notification from Facebook. That is when I saw Bobby Szoch sent me a friend request. I was like well dang that was fast. (Bobby told me later in the relationship he asked is roommate if it was too soon to send a friend request. His roommate said uhm ya. Bobby then said well too late. haha)

The next day around 4pm I got a text message "hey this is Bobby from last night." So, I responded "Bobby? Bobby who?" haha now I did remember him, but I had to mess with him since I freaking forgot his name. He then responded with a long message explaining who he was. I told him I was just kidding of course I remembered him. (Later he told me this is when he knew he wanted to get to know me more).

A lot of you know I played college soccer and my season is in the fall. Bobby asked me that week to go to a football game with him that Saturday. My heart dropped because I had a soccer game that day also. Sadly, I told him I couldn't and maybe we could hang out another time. Then, in the middle of the week my game got cancelled (hallelujah). I told him this so the plan was for me to go to the tailgate then the game with him. I still had early morning practice, but I hopped in the shower and got ready.

I got to the tailgate and we hung out there for a little bit, and then headed to the game. It was so hot out. I will be the first to admit I sweat very easily and I was sweating that day... like a lot. I thought great he is going to notice and think I am gross. We left at halftime (thank the good Lord above) to go get some lunch with another couple. We then went back to his room at the house to watch the end of the game and chill. When I left we hugged, and then he kissed me.... was not expecting that haha.

Later, I was on Instagram and noticed Brooke Szoch liked my photo, so I clicked on her profile thinking it was his sister then I noticed how familiar she looked. The next time I saw Bobby I said your sister looks so familiar to me. Turns out we went to a UGA soccer camp together when I was a sophomore in high school and we were in the same group. Right when he said that it clicked and I instantly remembered. He then said you know Coach Avery right? I was like ya he was my senior economics teacher, why? Bobby said he was looking at my graduation pictures on Facebook and saw the picture of us. He then said he was his baseball coach in high school. At this point I am thinking okay this is too weird how we are connected. I called my mom later and told her all of this and she said "it must be meant to be." To this day I call those interactions my hints from God that I was about to meet my best friend.

Now fast forward to November when I found out we were dating. We were walking to dinner. We started crossing the crosswalk when a car turned while we were walking. We stopped immediately and that's when I said "oh my gosh what if we would have been hit by that car." Bobby responded "what if I ended up in a wheel chair, would you still date me?" I said "of course" immediately. Then I said "wait we are dating?" He said "shut up, obviously." Then that's when I thought to myself "what, when did he ask me to be his girlfriend?" I was so confused trying to figure out if he ever asked me. The answer was no he didn't. So later that night when I got back to campus, I texted him asking "uhm you said we were dating, but you never asked me." He said "I don't have to ask you we have been going out on dates haven't we, and we have accepted the fact when people call us boyfriend and girlfriend." I thought well maybe college boys do things differently. He then asked "why? Do you not want to date me?" I said to him that I did, duh.

Our relationship has always been a mystery to me haha. What I mean by this is he has always kept me on my toes wondering what we were and how serious we were. It got to about 6 months when people started asking if he said the dreaded "I love you." I was like no, not yet. It got to the point where my friends were trying to help me.... This is embarrassing, but I will tell you guys because it is a part of our story. My teammate and I came up with this plan where I would text her the code word "tangerine" and she would text "has he said he loves you yet?" So, one day I went to the bathroom after I texted the code word, hoping she would text it and he would read my screen..... Well that didn't spark anything. So, a week later we tried again. I was in an Uber sitting right next to him when I texted her "tangerine." I opened her message that read "has Bobby said he loves you yet?" I swear I felt him reading it, but still nothing!!!!

In April, is older sister, Heather, was getting married. I thought perfect, this has to be when he says it. My friends were like "ya, this has to be the time he tells you." We get to the wedding venue and throughout the day I am thinking this is it. It gets closer to the reception time, and I am like maybe he will say it dancing. Well, I got the words "I love you." But nope not from Bobby, his momma. So I was told "I love you," but from the wrong person. Haha. I said to my mom maybe he just doesn't love me because it has been 8 months and he hasn't said anything. She told me to just ask him. I was like mom "are you crazy? I don't want to ask him."

I tried to prepare myself for a week that I might have to ask him. It got to the weekend and I was like okay this is it I am going to ask him before the party. Nope I chickened out. I thought no biggie I will ask Saturday. Lol nope. So Sunday evening I was like Erin you have to ask him now. I looked at him while we were watching TV and said "I have to ask you something." He asked "what is it?" I said "uh let me think how I want to say it." I chickened out again. After the TV show he walked me to my car and asked "what did you have to ask me?" My heart started beating so hard and I just blurted out "do you opposite of hate me?" (Really Erin, do you opposite of hate me? Are you freaking serious?) He started laughing and thought for a second "do I opposite of hate you? Do I love you?" I just let out a huge sigh and said "yessssss." His response was "yes, do you love me?" I said yes. And then he said "was that so hard?" lol are you kidding me Bobby, yes it was that hard. I mess with him to this day and ask him why he didn't just tell me.

So we have now been together for a 3 and a half years. Time sure does fly when you are with your best friend. We have been through so much together. Growing and laughing with each other has been the best experience. Which leads me to the proposal. Below is the story on how he asked.

Bobby told me about two weeks ago we were celebrating his dad's birthday at the Botanical gardens and later having dinner at a Hibachi place. I thought nothing of it. The day came Saturday, February 3rd. We both got haircuts that morning and then took some blog pics. After the blog pics we got ready to leave for the gardens. This whole time Bobby was feeling sick (that's what he told me after), but I didn't notice anything. We got to the gardens and his two sisters, brother-in-law, and nephew were already there. We were in the lobby when his mom called and said they were running late, so start without them. We started walking around when Brooke said "aw Rhett is that a poopy face? Ethan you should go change his diaper." So then, his other sister said "Bobby go with him to watch the stroller." I was still clueless.

So the guys started walking to bathroom when they noticed the planned proposal was being interrupted. His siblings went early to hang pictures on the trees. The guys noticed they were taken down and saw a maintenance lady walking with them, so they intercepted her and were like "what are you doing?!? We are about to have a proposal!" She said "you can't do that." Bobby then told her that he called a couple days before and they told him it was fine.

While that was happening his sisters were with me just casually talking. We started walking towards the fountain when they noticed the pictures missing too. At that moment I am just talking with them and walking, and they are looking at each like "where are they?"

We met at the end with Ethan and the baby (Ethan had the pictures). Then Brooke said "let's go to the lobby I think mom and dad are here." So, we start walking towards the lobby. Not long after Heather grabbed me and turned me around handing me the photos saying "read these." That's when I knew we weren't here for his dad's birthday anymore.

This was my view as I started walking and reading. I started crying and then getting super excited. I went through many emotions all at once, while I was also shaking and feeling my heart about to fall out of my chest. The notes were so sweet and heart-felt.

When I was reading that last note card I got to the end where it said "Erin, will you..." I was at the fountain where Bobby was getting on one knee. I thought "OMG, this is the moment I have been waiting for since I met this "cute guy." He asked the famous "will you marry me?" I said "yes! is this real?" haha I am still in disbelief.

After the excitement, we then went to dinner with my family and his family. It was such a fun day celebrating his dad's birthday and our engagement. Thank you everyone who was a part of this day <3.