The Story

Sean & Raven
Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
Tags: Story, Bellingham, Seattle, Craigslist, Partnership, Life

We met on Craigslist.

Which, objectively, is insane.

Not Tinder.
Not Hinge.

Craigslist.

Missed Connections.

September 2009, Bellingham, Washington.

That’s where this started.

The Beginning (Which Shouldn’t Have Worked)

I posted something.

Or maybe he did.

Honestly, it doesn’t matter anymore.

What matters is:

someone saw something small and decided it was worth responding to.

And then we met.

No expectations.

No grand plan.

Just curiosity.

We were young.

Like, actually young.

I was 18.
He was 19.

Which is an age where most relationships are:

• chaotic

• short-lived

• forgettable

And yet—

this one wasn’t.

We Didn’t Drift—We Built

That’s the part people don’t always understand.

This wasn’t accidental.

We made decisions early that most people wait years to make.

We stayed.

Through:

• finishing college

• working full-time

• figuring out how to actually function as adults

Together.

We got our degrees.

Marketing, both of us.

Western Governors University.

Which, again, not glamorous—but very us.

Practical. Efficient. Strategic.

Then we bought a condo.

201 Galer Street, Unit #334.

October 2011.

Which is another thing people don’t really do at 20 years old.

But we did.

Because we weren’t playing house.

We were building one.

The Life We Created

Seattle became our foundation.

Not just a place we lived—

A place we operated from.

We worked.
We grew.
We figured out what kind of life we actually wanted.

And then we got dogs.

Hansel and Wimbledon.

Two dachshunds with completely disproportionate personalities.

That’s when it started to feel real.

Not just a relationship.

A life.

A shared one.

The Engagement (Of Course It Was Mutual)

Christmas Day, 2010.

We both proposed.

Which feels very on-brand in hindsight.

No hierarchy.

No waiting.

Just:

we’re doing this

I gave him a Cartier tri-gold ring.

He gave me a Tiffany black titanium ring.

Which, again—

exactly us.

Luxury, but slightly unconventional.

Classic, but with an edge.

Why Stockholm

By the time marriage became legal, we already knew what we were doing.

There was no question.

Just:

where

Raven had roots in Europe.

His mother was German.
His father Swedish.

So Stockholm wasn’t random.

It meant something.

And I had never been to Europe before.

So it felt like:

• a beginning

• a tribute

• a step into something bigger

All at once.

What This Really Was

Looking back, the relationship wasn’t defined by one moment.

Not the meeting.

Not the engagement.

Not even the wedding.

It was defined by:

consistency

We showed up.

For years.

In ways that were:

• practical

• ambitious

• forward-moving

We didn’t just feel things.

We acted on them.

Built on them.

Turned them into something tangible.

Final Thought

We met on Craigslist.

And somehow turned that into:

• a home

• a life

• a marriage in Stockholm

Which, if you had told either of us that at the beginning—

we probably wouldn’t have believed you.

But we did it anyway.

And that’s the part that matters.