One Year

One year ago today, I got married to the most amazing man. It's been a crazy and wonderful year. One deployment, a cross country move, and some yucky meals later, here we are. It's crazy how things change. How we met ten years ago. How it took about eight-and-a-half years for "us" to actually work out. I mean, we have seriously been through it all...or it seems like it anyway. But now that we've been through so much, marriage has actually seemed pretty easy. So far. I'm with a guy that I trust 100% (obviously, or we wouldn't have gotten married! Haha). I still get excited everyday when he walks through the door. I love that he loves "all those quirky little things about me." Weird things. Like my OCD cleaning habits and my crazy addiction to antique shopping. It's funny how two years ago we weren't even on speaking terms. Yup. It's true. You wanna know what changed that? A mutual friend was injured in Iraq. Bad. Hearing the news was awful. But worse than that, was knowing that it could have been Duke. Sure, that's absolutely selfish. But I'm an honest person. Obviously, I never would want anyone to experience that. I know of way too many military widows and wounded troops. People always say that the person you should marry is the one person you absolutely cannot live without. Well, I knew without a doubt that I could not live without Duke. And I knew right then that things had to change. Duke had screwed up big time. We all do. Heck, I've screwed up a million times. That's what makes us human. He had been trying to call me for months and I ignored him. I was basically being a big baby and holding a grudge, which I seemed to do better than anyone. But, then I realized that there is nothing that Duke could ever do that would make me want to live without him. Life is short. Too short. And that was when I knew. I picked up the phone right then and called him. I love him more than anything. It was basically written in the stars for us to be together all along. We just had to grow up. That's what happens when you meet the love of your life in the ninth grade. And for all the people that thought we would never make it...guess what? We did. And we will.

P.S. I don't hold grudges anymore. That's not who I want to be. And life is just too short.