Current culture loves love. People write books, produce movies and sing songs about this highest emotion known to mankind. However, the basis for all of these forms of media are love stories. Simple tales, whether fact or fiction, open the imagination up to this feeling of the heart. The Hawk’s Eye uncovered some of these heartwarming and asked their tellers for advice on how to find and keep their love.

Seniors Jenna Wooten and Chandler Horst met through their mutual friend Justin Wills. Wooten rode the bus with Wills. Meanwhile, Horst had been friends with Wills since the third grade when the two were introduced during lunch and they hit it off.

Wooten said, “We met before Thanksgiving break. Then we got back from break and he told me this really funny story. Basically he said that every time something went bad, like if he was in his bed and he left his phone on the other side of the room, he would say “freaking Jenna Wooten” and it would cheer him up or something.”

This story, along with their quickly-formed friendship, led to a relationship between the two. They have been together for four years now and have done much to show how they care for one another.

“I work at Boston Market and the other day I had to work at a really crappy location, that’s like, ‘I can’t eat any of the food there.’ So he drove an extra 15 minutes there to bring me food there. He does stuff like that just all the time.”

Horst has also been on the receiving end of many romantic gestures from Wooten.

“She’s really thoughtful. Her gifts and everything. [She’s] given me jars and stuff of cute moments that we’ve done or things that we’ve done. Why [she] likes me and things like that. It’s really adorable.” said Horst. Through their experience they described what they thought the key to a long relationship is.

“I think it’s [about] communication. She and I text like all the time. So it’s definitely communication. We are always on the same page; we both know what the other person is doing. It’s definitely not abusive you know. It’s just putting trust in the other person, liking opening up to other people.” Horst said.

Wooten also had some advice for finding the right person.

Wooten said, “I think you shouldn’t try to change the other person. If they do something you don’t like or you can’t deal with, you shouldn’t try to change them. You should accept the fact that you can’t be together and move on. If you try to change them, you’ll either change them and won’t be with ‘them’ as a person and they can’t be themselves around you, or they’ll end up resenting you for not liking them for who they are.”

The two agreed that the most important thing is that the relationship feels natural and right.

Horst said, “It should feel right. It shouldn’t feel forced. Like Jenna and I just clicked. It’s hard to explain, but our friends didn’t force this relationship on us.”

While touring with her rock band, registrar Debbie Stewart met her would-be-husband David on their stop at a bar called Yesteryears.

“He was a sportscaster on the 10:00 news, and would come in to see us after he got done for the night around 11:00.  The first night he came in, he was with his fiancée, but then he came back several nights without her, and would buy me drinks and we talked on my breaks, etc…” Stewart said.

Before she left town, he gave her his number and they parted ways.

“However, when I would come back to KC over the next few years, I would see him on TV and assumed that he was married by then, so I never called him.” Stewart said.

Three and a half years later, Stewart’s best friend Wendy was getting married and she invited Stewart to her “husband-to-be’s” softball game against the team David played for. She went along and was reunited with him.

Stewart said, “After the game I walked up to re-introduce myself to Dave, and he remembered me and asked why I had never called him.  I told him that I assumed he was married, but he said that he and his fiancée had broken up, so he was single.”

She wound up breaking up with her current boyfriend and got together with David.

Stewart said, “I continued to travel with my band for another six months, but David and I communicated by writing letters and calling each other when we could, and he flew out to see the band three or four times.  I still have a copy paper-sized box with all the letters [he wrote me], and another one full of mine to him.”

The two of them stayed together since and have been happily married for 28 years

Looking back, she remembers admiring his looks and his personality, but she also said she liked the stability of his job, seeing as she was in a rock band.

Stewart also gave some advice for a healthier relationship.

She said, “You need to try to be on the same page on money, religion, how to raise your children and probably where to live.

It’s also very important to have open communication and that you’re having fun together.”

Environmental Design teacher, Sheri Gillett, met her husband when she was in the third grade. Gillett remembers having a special affection for him in a childish innocent way. Then they went to different elementary schools, but in seventh grade they met again where their relationship started growing. The Gilletts have been together since then, and will celebrate their 37th wedding anniversary over this upcoming summer.

“I think you have to be complete within yourself before you can have a relationship with someone else. Until you don’t need anybody, you’re not ready for a relationship. When you are okay by yourself, then you’re ready to be with someone else. You need to find someone that 100% supports you in whatever you do and becomes someone that encourages you in everything you do. If you can’t do that, if you are with someone who ever puts you down or says anything that brings you down at all, that’s an abusive relationship and you need to walk away,” Gillett said.

When they were in high school, her husband got her an engagement ring. He did not have any money so he sold his motorcycle, designed a ring, and had it made for her. She remembers that as one of the most romantic things that he ever did for her. There were, however, many romantic stories she had to tell.

Gillett said, “My husband told me that if I ever wanted my dream job he would follow me. He’d been working for 17 years for the state of Oregon. He had a career going, but I found my dream job designing toys and he followed me across the country. He quit his job. That’s the kind of person you need to be with. Someone that supports you and gets you. I would do the same for him. Whatever he wants to do, I’m his support system and he’s mine. That’s what keeps a relationship together”.

They went to college in different places, ten hours away from each other.

“We both always knew we had to take care of ourselves first before we could be together. We did get married. I worked and supported him until he graduated, then he worked and supported me until I graduated,” Gillett said.

Gillett also commented on the problems with the relationships of today.

“I think people are so willing to be in a relationship that they don’t see how it’s damaging to them. They want the relationship so much. I see girls begging guys to be with them. If somebody doesn’t want to be with you then that’s a gift. It’s a gift because they’re not right for you. They’ve given you the gift of finding the right person. If they say “no” don’t take it as personal and hurtful, take it as ‘Thank you. Now I can find someone who will love me fully!’ I think they do it in harm to themselves. They get in relationships with people who don’t push them forward; they pull them back.”

Gillett advises people on choosing and committing to a relationship.

“A lot of people fall in love with the idea of being in love, or they fall in love with the dream of who they want that person to be, but they don’t really see who that person is. You need to be able to fall in love with who that person is. You will never change another person. You will never rescue another person. And that person should never try to change you either. You need to [ask yourself] ‘Are you in love with the idea of being in love? Are you in love with your fantasy person or do you really care about the person?’ I think that’s the most important thing.”

Jacob Wilson // Graphics Editor

Anna Julia Carvalho // Staff Writer