I have been dating Orion Moore for the grand total of months, although it hasn't been continuous. He has been one of the most profound influences on my life over the past that I've known him, even during the 9 month interim that we were just friends.

One summer, I decided that if I was going to have any sort of hope of contending on my cross country team, I had better go to the annual cross country camp that the Metro League coaches put on every year. I wasn't sure what it would be like, since I didn't know anyone and the two girls from my team weren't exactly my best friends in the whole world. After a particularly bad day, I was standing in line to get my spaghetti. I happened to be wearing my hat that I bought at Sea World, the one with a whale through it. Orion was in front of me, and he asked me where I got it. That wasn't anything new, but what was new was that he actually kept talking to me. We became friends instantly. We spent that evening chatting, and we continued as we climbed Mt. Audubon the next day. The last night of the camp, he came to get my address and phone number, and ended up talking for a couple hours in the hallway. We talked about everything, from religion to prior relationships to computer programming. By the end of that night, it was clear that there was something more than just a simple friendship.

We tried to maintain the "just friends" approach over the next few weeks, but that didnt really work. We officially began dating the day after my sixteenth birthday and continued dating for 10 months.

Around May, things began to deteriorate in our relationship. He was a lot more busy than he had been before, and I was becoming more distrustful. For these reasons and a few others, we ended the relationship not long after I went to Washington University in June. It was difficult because we had assumed we would be together forever, but at the same time, we knew it was the best thing to do.

Over the next couple months, through his persistence, my reluctant common sense, and a few miscommunications, we grew to be friends again. He visited the grounds of the Denver Temple shortly before my seventeenth birthday, and I realized that I was closer to him then as friends than I ever had been throughout the period in which we were dating. He remained one of my best friends throughout the school year, giving me encouragement through all the tough times. We really got to know each other a lot better than when we were dating because we were concentrated on talking and not kissing.

It came time for my senior prom, and I didn't have a date. All the guys in my school were either taken or just gross, so I called up Orion and told him to come to prom with me. I was excited to be going with one of my good guy friends and just having a blast at the last major celebration of my senior year. Something happened that night, though. At first, during the slow songs we would talk about interesting things like computer programming or college, but as the night went on, we found less and less to talk about and ended up just looking into each other's eyes.

Within the next twelve hours, we were together again. We had a serious discussion the following morning, and after promising each other that we would uphold President Kimball's standards, we became a couple. It was kind of weird to go so suddenly from friendship to coupledom so quickly, and it took me a couple weeks to really get used to it. Since then, we have fallen in love again. This summer was by far one of the best I ever had, and it's all due to him. He has helped me to overcome the depression I was suffering for six months and also helped me to work through a number of fears and anxieties. He knows me better than anyone else, and is the source of a lot of the most helpful advice I receive.

Well, on October 31, 2000, I bid Orion farewell. He's in the Missionary Training Center now, preparing to go to Hermosillo, Mexico. It was really, really hard to say goodbye. I've only personally known two people who are serving missions now besides Orion, and I didn't know either of them well enough to be very concerned when they left. I can't think of a better reason for him to leave than to serve the Lord for two years, but that doesn't ease the pain of separation by much. He returns in only . (His parents got a pretty snazzy missionary countdown clock. Being the Computer Science major that I am, I figured it's be a lot more fun to simply program it into my webpage.)

This is going to be hard. It's like being thrown back in time a hundred years to when there were no phones or computers or email or Internet. All we have is letters, and they really can't be any more frequent than once a week. He's given me permission to post them here, so check back here frequently to read what's new with him as he learns how to be a missionary.

I'm kind of scared - two years later in life doesn't really mean all that much, but two years at this stage can mean a world of difference. Missionaries will come back completely different from how they left. Relationships seldom work out - only something like 7% of those who set out to keep a relationship through a mission will actually make it to the sealing room at the temple. I'm not too terribly worried about some other guy catching my eye while he's gone - I love him too much, and I've never been a big one for dating anyhow. No, what frightens me the most is the idea that I could put so much time, effort, patience, money, and love into our relationship while he's serving, and then have it all turn to naught.

This page was last updated by Beth Siler on November 1, 2000.
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