RIGHT TIME RIGHT PLACE

RIGHT TIME RIGHT PLACE: Connection wasn't instant, but he got the message

Jorge and Summer Mojica were married on Aug. 6, 2011. Summer drove three hours from her school, Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, to see Jorge play soccer at Williams Baptist College in Walnut Ridge on several occasions. He plays three games a week now in an adult league. “I do go watch him play — when I don’t have homework,” says Summer, who is studying to be a physician assistant.
Jorge and Summer Mojica were married on Aug. 6, 2011. Summer drove three hours from her school, Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, to see Jorge play soccer at Williams Baptist College in Walnut Ridge on several occasions. He plays three games a week now in an adult league. “I do go watch him play — when I don’t have homework,” says Summer, who is studying to be a physician assistant.

Summer Combs wasn't being forward in contacting Jorge Mojica via her phone's instant messenger; she was just being friendly. He struck her down but later made a sweet pass, and they have been together ever since.

Summer was a freshman at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville in 2007. Her roommate -- her best friend from high school -- was dating a soccer player at Williams Baptist College in Walnut Ridge.

The first time I saw my future spouse:

He says: “When she came out of her car in Beebe I really liked her smile. She has a beautiful smile. I knew that I was going to like her because she has such a nice smile. Her hair also helped a lot because she has really pretty hair. And she was really nice.”

She says: “He was really kind of shy and reserved and I was like, ‘I don’t know how this is going to go.’”

On our wedding day:

He says: “I remember one of my groomsman telling me, ‘Do not lock your knees, do not lock your knees.’ He did not want me to pass out.”

She says: “I walked down the aisle without my shoes. I had them and I was planning to put them on right before and walk but I didn’t. It totally went out of my mind and I just walked.”

My advice for a happy marriage is:

He says: “Summer is really good at communicating with me. I’m not as good as she is. I feel that the way she approaches me so that we can always talk about things – good things, bad things – that really helps our relationship.”

She says: “We’ve talked a lot about that, about how important communication is. Girls tend to like the guys to just automatically know what you want and what they’re thinking and what they want and be mind readers and that’s just not realistic.”

"She had been driving three hours to go see her boyfriend at Williams Baptist and she didn't like going alone and she was trying to convince me to go with her," says Summer, who grew up in Bryant. "She was like I'm going to find you a guy on the soccer team so you'll go with me."

The friend showed her a photo of the soccer team.

"I was like, 'I don't know. Why are we doing this?' And then she points to Jorge in the picture and she says, 'This guy is so funny and I really think you'll like him,'" says Summer.

Summer's roommate was messaging her boyfriend from their dorm room sometime later. He passed on Jorge's instant messenger username and suggested Summer start a conversation with him.

Jorge, however, wasn't in on the plan. He didn't know who was sending the messages that popped up on his screen.

"And it was in Spanish," says Jorge, who was born in La Laguna Seca, Chalatenango, El Salvador. "It was very strange."

Jorge was short in the exchange and that put an end to that ... until his friend asked him the next day if he had heard from a girl named Summer.

"I was like, 'Well, it would have been nice of you to tell me this before,'" says Jorge. "I really wasn't very nice to her and it was just bothering me and bothering me and finally I said, 'I'm just going to say hello to her.'"

Summer was surprised to see a message from Jorge a few months after their initial exchange.

"That time I think we talked ... for about eight hours. We realized we had a lot in common and it was good," says Summer.

They talked on the phone and soon decided to meet halfway, in Beebe. Neither knew the town but agreed to touch base by cellphone when they arrived.

"We drove around Beebe for half an hour trying to find each other," Jorge laughs.

He hadn't seen a picture of Summer, but she told him on the phone what kind of car she was driving and he saw her end the call as she pulled into a spot near him in a lot near Arkansas State University.

They hugged, talked and decided to go to Searcy for a movie and dinner.

Jorge, not feeling well but not wanting to cancel their date, was quiet as Summer drove.

"I thought, 'Oh, no. There is going to be no conversation. This isn't going to go anywhere,'" she confesses.

When they walked into a little Mexican restaurant for dinner, though, his personality emerged.

"He started speaking Spanish to everybody and he felt so comfortable there," she says. "He ordered in Spanish, which was very attractive to me. It was when we sat down and I started telling him I couldn't roll my Rs at all that we really relaxed."

They saw Fool's Gold and then, because they didn't want to part ways, walked around Wal-Mart for several hours, just enjoying each other's company.

They saw each other almost every weekend after that. Summer, not a big soccer fan before they met, visited Williams Baptist more often than Jorge went to Arkansas Tech because he needed to be on campus for soccer games.

"He was a forward and he scored so it was a lot more exciting so I really enjoyed it," she says.

Summer drove to Walnut Ridge for a winter formal at Williams Baptist in February 2011. There was an open mic for students who wanted to show off their talents and Jorge had arranged to do a magic trick. He asked Summer to come on stage to assist him, and with all of his classmates looking on he pulled out a ring he had hidden in a deck of cards, dropped to one knee and asked her to marry him.

They exchanged their vows on Aug. 6, 2011, in a little church in Berryville.

Their reception was at the ranch home of Jorge's beloved high school teacher.

It hadn't rained in months, but as they drove from the wedding to the reception raindrops started to fall and soon after that a thunderstorm howled, knocking over glassware and a chocolate fountain and drenching guests.

"But we still danced," says Jorge. "Even with all that we still had fun."

Jorge is in pharmaceutical sales with Astra Zeneca. Summer is a physician assistant student at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. They live in Bryant with their dogs, Kacey and Luna.

"I see her as my best friend," says Jorge. "I can just lean on her for anything because I know that she's really going to listen and she's going to open up and tell me the truth."

If you have an interesting how-we-met story or if you know someone who does, please call (501) 425-7228 or email

[email protected]

photo

Special to the Democrat-Gazette

Summer and Jorge Mojica were introduced by friends — sort of. Summer wasn’t sure at first that they would hit it off because Jorge was quiet and she longed for conversation. But he held both of her hands while they watched a movie and he held doors open for her. “And still does to this day,” she says. “I liked that he was just different. He was — he is — just exceptionally sweet.”

High Profile on 11/19/2017

Upcoming Events