My problem has always been social anxiety, awkwardness, and poor self-esteem. I've had a few women show interest in me before, but I shrugged it off because I couldn't possibly be good enough for them, or so I thought. I even mustered up the courage to ask a few women out - and had one say yes - but I was too afraid and pathetic to take it any further than that. We never had an actual date.

When I met the woman who eventually became my wife, things were different. We met on an online forum and started talking to each other thanks to a shared interest in the same type of music. I never had any trouble with anxiety or awkwardness online (though, sadly, that never translated to the real world) so I at least gave off the appearance of someone fun and easy to get along with. We had a lot of things in common with each other (she, like me, was also a bit of a social outcast with no real friends), and always just "got" each other.

The only problem was distance, but that didn't stop us from continuing to talk to each other. At one point, I asked for her phone number, she freely gave it, and we'd both keep each other up late into the night just talking about everything, and nothing. But we still couldn't meet, due to the distance and the fact that we were under 18 living with our parents.

I know what you're thinking at this point - "friendzoned." And had I known what the friend zone was back in the early 2000s, I probably would have assumed myself to be fully in it, and never tried what happened next. But I was young, and naive, and would ultimately be going to college only an hour away from where she lived. So I told her I liked her as more than just a friend, and would like to date her when I could see her in person. Actually, I think I skipped straight to asking her to be my girlfriend, because I was young and awkward, but the result was the same.......

She said no. Soul crushed. Why bother trying after that?

Just kidding. She said yes, of course she would. That was a full 9 (?) months before I'd be going to college, so we entered into an LDR. Of course, we didn't want to wait that long to see each other, so as soon as I was out of high school, and my parents couldn't tell me no anymore, I drove the 400 miles down to see her and we spent a week together. I wish I could say it was perfect, but I had no idea what I was doing in a relationship and almost screwed things up permanently.

But somehow I didn't, and we made plans to see each other again in another month. This time we took a camping trip together for a week, and this time it was perfect. I lost my virginity (managed to go the whole first week without doing so), she told me she loved me, and we talked about getting married (ah, to be young and naive again...). If not for certain practical considerations, we probably would have come back married.

As it was, we spent about 6 months "dating" each other (if you ask her, she'll say we never dated at all) before we got an apartment together. We got married 4 years later when I finished college, though we were engaged ever since our second week together. A month ago today, we celebrated our fifth anniversary. And I still enjoy rolling over in the morning and having her face be the first thing I see <3

Tl;dr met a woman online, became her best friend, asked her to be my gf. She broke all the rules and said yes :P