This is Samuel and Thaina's love story, as told to Sheriden Chanel
Love and magic are intrinsically connected. We stand more boldly within that the more we find it and the more we see others find it. It's why we gravitate towards love stories, it gives us hope, and something to believe in. We see others get it right and hope that maybe one day we'll get it right too.
Samuel Blot, 29, and Thaina Madere, 28, felt nothing short of magic upon meeting each other. In fact, their union was quite serendipitous. The planets and the sun and stars were lining up to make sure everything in the world was right when they met each other time and time again:
“We worked together, went to rival high schools, ended up at the same university and even had class together but I never knew her until it was the right time," Samuel recalls of his betrothed, “It wasn't until I saw her writing during a creative writing class that I started crushing on her. I started 'showing up' in the places where she would study and over time like… grew into love."
For Thaina, she insists that it was not at all love at first sight and she admits to never really noticing him until they were both creative writing majors at La Sierra University. They were strangers up until they became friends when she realized they kept running into each other, and Samuel began his crush. Over time, the two fell in love, rose in love, and grew in love together.
But, after a brief intermission for the couple that led to their untimely breakup, Samuel had time to think and realize the true value of the woman he loved.
“I knew that forever was what I wanted to be for her, and I knew I couldn't settle for anything less. It wasn't instant, but I won her back – and I've felt like I won the lottery every day since."
He was determined to get that old thing back by evolving into the kind of man he knew she needed and deserved. He come correct in courting Thaina for a second time. And, he loved it so much, he had to put a ring on it!
Read on for more about his personal journey to their proposal, which also included rewriting bad memories and forging new ones for his bride-to-be. #blacklovematters
Reunited & It Feels So Good
Nine months after our breakup, I pursued her again. I had become best friends with someone who I could no longer call mine. It was tough and I kept telling myself that Thai deserved better than who I was. Then it happened, God told me it was true! She did deserve better than who I was; but God also told me that I didn't have to settle for who I was either. I could be better. I could be better for her. I knew I wouldn't and couldn't force her to be with me so I bided my time, fasted, prayed, worked on improving and discovering myself, came up with a plan (I'm a planner), and came to her correct.
When I thought of our life together I knew that I had the feelings of love, but I didn't have that level of commitment to cement the “love" I knew. When deciding that she was “the one" I looked at what love was and felt discouraged that I didn't have everything. Then I realized it was a decision to intentionally “be" everything that love is. Patient. Kind. Long suffering. Wise. Strong in prayer. The moment I asked myself if this woman was the one I was willing to be a complete picture of love for, I knew I had to risk everything to be one with her.
I knew that forever was what I wanted to be for her, and I knew I couldn't settle for anything less. It wasn't instant, but I won her back – and I've felt like I won the lottery every day since.
The Proposal
I knew I wanted to marry Thaina but the “how" evaded me. All I knew was that I didn't want to half have her anymore so on September 17, 2016, I'd ask her to be my Queen forever. The day came and I had all the details planned out. I contacted a photographer friend to do a photoshoot with her in a “garden setting". What she didn't know is that I would be hiding around the bend with her family and friends waiting to surprise her. I ducked away from the shoot and went to change into my suit. I sent her friends out a few at a time and after her friends all came out, her family followed along with a violinist playing the song “Thinking Out Loud" by Ed Sheeran.
I chose this song because we had broken up around the time the song originally came out. She loved the song when it first played but it was attached to bad memories so from then, even though we had been together for months at this point, she still didn't like the song. I knew that I didn't just want to create new memories, I wanted to re-forge old ones if I could. After her family came out, it was time. I had a long speech prepared, but when I saw her standing there in all her beauty I only had one thing to say:
"Will you marry me?"
Follow the newly-engaged couple via @thainamadere and @samuelblot on Instagram. Find the original engagement post here.
All images provided by Samuel Blot and Thaina Madere
- I Broke Up My Boyfriend, A Year Later We Got Back Together - xoNecole: Women's Interest, Love, Wellness, Beauty ›
- 14 Men Share Why They Propose - xoNecole: Women's Interest, Love, Wellness, Beauty ›
- Writing a Love Letter to Your Husband or Wife, How To - xoNecole ›
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AriesKyra Jay for xoNecoleARIES
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For instance, people who have only had sex with their spouse reportedly have a 45 percent greater chance of having a really stable marriage. Another study says that 71 percent of men who have only had one partner are very happy in their marriage as opposed to 65 percent of men who’ve had two or more partners. And still, another report has stated that women with 10 or more partners are most likely to divorce while women with only one partner are the least likely to.
It's another article for another time about why this all may be the case. For now, I just thought it was important to remind cyberspace that virgins are not obsolete (check out Newsweek’s “Number of Virgins in America Hits Record High” that came out just this past January) and there are some former virgins in this world who not only waited until their wedding night — but, for their own special reasons, are oh so very glad that they did.
Giphy1. Lynn. 28. Married for Three Years.
“I come from a generation of virgins and I’m proud of that. My mom was a virgin when she got married. So was my grandmother. I was raised that my body is a wedding present and so I’ve always seen myself that way. I’m officially out of my newlywed years and while it took about a year for me to really get the hang of things, I like that my husband is the only man that I’ve known. I don’t have anyone to compare him to. I’m not wondering if I’m missing out. He was a virgin too, so we’re not worried about mystery babies or incubated diseases. Sex is peaceful in my home. I’m glad that I waited.”
2. Adina. 35. Married for Eight Years.
“I’ll be real — I was a virgin on a technicality. I think a lot of virgins are because I didn’t have intercourse until marriage — but there was some oral action going on up in here for years. That’s just the truth! It’s not that I don’t think that oral sex is sex — I just liked that I could have the pleasure without worrying about pregnancy…and yes, not wanting to get pregnant is the main reason why I waited until marriage. I will say that giving my husband something that no other man had before did make the wedding night special — awkward, kind of uncomfortable and funny as hell at times but really special. I don’t regret it.”
Giphy3. Marie. 29. Married for Two Years.
“I didn’t plan on being a virgin until marriage. My goal was just to not give it up unless I loved someone — and that didn’t happen until my husband. When he found out that I was a virgin, he didn’t want to risk us dating, having sex, and breaking up. He said that it would have been on his conscience for the rest of his life. So…we waited. I didn’t expect that to make me love and trust him more but it did. If he could guard my heart while dating me, I’m sure he can protect me well now that we’re married. Waiting made me feel safer in my relationship. That is probably the best thing about it.”
4. Eliana. 30. Married for Six Years.
“People like to act like sex isn’t a big deal and that’s a damn lie. Anything that can give you a child or a disease that could end your life isn’t something that you should not care about. It’s not that I wasn’t curious or tempted or that there weren’t times when I didn’t come close, but so many of my friends had regrets about…not really the sex but who they chose to have sex with that I didn’t think it was worth the stress. I do think that if you are going to wait until your wedding night that you should find some wives to talk to because, baby, I was not prepared. I think that is a part of what marriage is about, though — having some things that you learn about, only with your spouse, knowing that it’s not a performance but an experience and since you’re married, you have all of the time in the world. There was a learning curve but we’ve got it down now, ma’am. Thank you very much.”
Giphy5. Krystal. 27. Married for Four Years.
“I’ve always thought it was weird that people think that virginity is only tied to religion. I’m agnostic and I was a virgin until I was 23 because I watched how the college years went for most of my friends and I decided to pass on STIs, unwanted pregnancies, and being caught up in guys who I didn’t see a future with. Life was easier for me not having sex and now I can enjoy my husband without the drama that my friends went through. You don’t need religion to use discernment.”
6. Michelle. 24. Married for One Year.
“I don’t know why people think that being a virgin means that you don’t think a lot about sex or have valid things to say about sex. For me, staying a virgin was hard but the reason was simple: I have a vivid imagination and I didn’t feel like having to think about what I should try or hold back from when it came time to do it. I know women who are like, ‘I’ll have sex with you but won’t suck your d-ck’ or ‘I’ll have sex with you but not in these positions.’ Girl, that man is in your body. What are all of these rules about? If your first time is something that you will never forget, I wanted mine to be no rules, no boundaries — we in this bitch! And that’s just how my wedding night was. I love him. He loves me. We’re gonna do whatever, whenever, however, for the rest of our lives. To me, that’s how sex should be.”
Giphy7. Francine. 33. Married for Four Years.
“I was too busy for sex. Call it strange but I just had too much on my plate. I think some people go to college and lose it because they didn’t have a real plan. College is something you do and so you go — and then you get distracted. That wasn’t me. I knew what I wanted to do, so, as fine as some of the men were, I wasn’t going to waste my time or my scholarship. Then, once I got my master’s, I was focused on getting a job and buying a house, so I didn’t do a lot of dating then either. I guess the universe didn’t want me out in these streets for too long because once I was ready to have a dating life, after three flop dates, thanks to a set-up, I met my husband, we dated for six months, and got married. It’s weird because I didn’t put much thought into being a virgin until my wedding night while I was living my life but now that you ask, I’m glad that I waited because, since I am such a planner, it’s nice that I don’t see sex as something that wrecked, ruined or even delayed all of the other things that I wanted to do. I never want to see sex as problematic. I think that waiting kept that from happening.”
8. Nya. 31. Married for Six Years.
“I’ll never forget you telling me about that husband who said that the thing that he loved the most about his wife’s body is he believed that when God made her, he had her in mind. When you told me that she wasn’t a Coke bottle shape, that made me feel like I didn’t need to change who I was while waiting for the right man. In all honesty, a part of the reason why I was a virgin for so long is because I had body image issues that I was dealing with. In college, I learned that men talk just as much as women when it comes to stuff like that and I didn’t want different guys ‘sizing me up.’ When I met my husband, he always made me feel not just like I was attractive but that my body was stunning to him — and that made me want to share myself with him. Honestly, the only reason why we waited until our wedding was because we were in a long-distance relationship and didn’t date for long, but it did feel good to know that he didn’t want to ‘test anything out’ before to make sure that he would be happy in that way. He was satisfied with me without sex and that made the wedding night pretty incredible."
Giphy9. Berry. 38. Married for 20 Years.
“It might be weird to hear that, although I was a virgin on my wedding night, I was also ‘abstinent’ when I dated my husband. What I’m saying is that no man had penetrated me before him, but I did mess around quite a bit with guys and it always made things messy — one way or another. When my husband came along, he wasn’t a virgin by any stretch, but he had been abstinent too for a few months. When we saw that this was going somewhere, we made the decision to not do anything sexual until we got engaged and then to not have actual sex until our wedding night. It gave us time to learn intimacy in other ways. It also helped out our relationship because we both travel for work. People think that you don’t need self-control sometimes after marriage and that’s just not true. Anyway, something that I respect about waiting is it ‘programmed’ me to see sex as something that is only for marriage — not due to religion but because I don’t know what intercourse is like without having a husband. I kinda like it.”
10. Chadae. 43. Married for 18 Years.
“It might sound crazy but one of my favorite celebrities has always been Lisa Bonet. I thought she was so pretty on The Cosby Show and I remembered watching a rerun of when Cliff asked her husband if they had sex before marriage and he said that Denise was a virgin on their wedding day. Even though a lot of my friends were having sex, something about that stood out to me — that you can be a beautiful woman, go on dates, have a full life and there doesn’t have to be sex on the table. I also liked how proud Cliff was as a father because, when my husband asked for permission to marry me, my dad didn’t ask if I was still a virgin, but I told him and my mom that I was and he teared up. He said it was because he wanted a man to value me enough to vow himself to me before I gave him my body — and he trusted my husband because he did. It might sound old-fashioned but some things that are ‘old-school’ prevent you from learning things the hard way.”
____
Two of my favorite married couples have been together for over 20 years and the thing that they have in common is both the husbands and wives were virgins on their wedding day. Something that one of the wives has told me is she likes that all she knows is her husband and something that one of the husbands has said is he’s never wondered if he’s missing out on anything because he’s never had anyone to compare his wife to. How sweet is that?
If you are a virgin who is reading this, all of these resolves can definitely provide you with some food for thought before making any decisions about what to do about your own sex life. Because while the power of your sexuality is certainly your choice, should you want to wait — not only should you not feel bad, embarrassed, or even hesitant about that, there are benefits that can come with making such a sober-minded decision.
Virgins still exist. And, like most things in life, virginity has its own rewards. Salute.
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