NEED TO KNOW
- Sarah Wilder Hecht met her now-husband, Steven Hecht, in high school, when the two sat next to each other in class and formed a friendship
- While they lost touch after graduating, they were reunited in 2013
- After getting married, Sarah was shocked to discover that Steven had left her a message in their 9th-grade yearbook
Sarah Wilder Hecht and her husband, Steven Hecht, first formed a friendship in high school, as they frequently found themselves seated together in class.
After graduating in 2005, they lost touch, but would reunite years later in 2013 at a festival in Atlanta. Soon after, they started dating, and in 2017, they said “I do.”
Shortly after the wedding, Sarah decided to take a trip down memory lane, which led to a discovery she never expected.
“We were at my parents’ house, and I was like, ‘I wonder if we have any pictures together in high school,’ because we were friends,” Sarah, 39, tells PEOPLE.
As she was flipping through the pages of her ninth-grade yearbook, she stumbled upon a message Steven had written over 15 years prior.
Sarah Wilder Hecht
“Sarah, it’s too bad school is ending and I don’t get to hear your incoherint (mispelled) [sic] rambling anymore. Have a good summer and try not to think as hard as this guy. See ya next year, Steven,” his message read, with an arrow pointing to a man on the neighboring page who looked particularly stressed.
“I was looking through it, and I saw that, and I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, that is so funny. I need to keep that forever,'” Sarah says.
Her husband was even more surprised by the old note, but for a different reason.
“He was like, ‘I don’t remember writing that. I would never spell those words wrong,'” she says. “I was like, ‘Here it is. It’s history. It’s part of history.’ ”
Although Sarah doesn’t remember exactly what she wrote in Steven’s yearbook, she joked that it was likely “a whole dissertation.”
“I loved him in high school. I thought because he was so quiet, and I just thought he was the funniest thing. I was like, ‘Who acts like this? Who keeps to themselves?’ So I’m sure I did,” she shares.
Sarah Wilder Hecht
The two, who are parents to 5-year-old twin boys, will celebrate their respective 40th birthdays this year, as well as their ninth wedding anniversary in May.
Even after 12 years together, Sarah admits that those who knew them in high school are still probably shocked by their coupling.
“I think our high school friends are probably shocked that we’re together, but he’s very shy, he’s very quiet, as you can tell from his post,” she says. “I’m outgoing, I’m the talkative one. But it’s a good balance.”
Sarah posted a video of the yearbook note on TikTok, and it amassed over 122,000 views.
“All that trouble just to marry the guy who wrote this in my 9th grade yearbook,” she wrote atop the post, jokingly adding in the caption, “He was clearly smitten from the start.”
Sarah tells PEOPLE she was surprised by some of the online responses, noting that “it’s funny how different people take it.”
“Some people are like, ‘Oh, he liked you.’ I like to err on the side of, ’Oh, he liked you,'” she says. “I thought that was funny. It’s such a funny way to show who we were in high school is still who we are today.”
Sarah Wilder Hecht
While her husband denies having a crush on her in high school, Sarah believes actions — and old yearbook notes — speak louder than words.
“He says no, but I mean, look at that. Obviously, he did, and we got to pick where we sat, and he sat next to me, so he liked me,” she says.
Looking back, Sarah shares that, “what he wrote then is just so true of what is now.”
“He’s a great soundboard for me and clearly has always been, and just someone that I’ve always felt comfortable sharing anything and everything with, whether it’s coherent or incoherent. He’s a great husband,” she says.
