welcome to my journal

Where did we leave off in the story of us? Oh yes, our first date. AJ and I continued to see each other every moment that we could those first two months together. To the point, that even on my lunch breaks I would go over to his house to just take a nap. We couldn’t get enough of each other. I told him going into this that I would be leaving at the end of May to go to Vermont for the summer, and then I would be starting Grad School in Iowa, but we both decided that we would give things a try anyway and just see what happens.

The day finally came when we had to say goodbye. We left with saying “See you Soon.”

He stayed in Minnesota and continued to work on the road finishing cement. I was off for the summer I had always dreamed of…hiking in Vermont at an all girl’s summer camp. Because I was in the middle of absolutely nowhere, I didn’t have access to my cell phone, nor did I really ever had any service anyway. We were able to call each other every so often on the staff phone, but instead, we wrote each other letters. It felt like we were straight out of a romance movie. We wrote about what we were doing. Our past. What we loved most about each other. What we would do when we saw each other again. We talked about everything in those letters. It was such an innocent way to get to know each other more, and with each letter, I started falling harder and harder for this guy. I’m happy to say I still have those letters too! It will always be a precious thing to look back on.

When I got home from camp, I only had a couple of days before I had to move down to Ames, Iowa to start grad school. We spent every moment we had together. Again, we left with a “See you Soon.” The very next weekend, we came down to visit. And well, we never spend more than a week or two apart. We put on a lot of miles that year. Driving back and forth from Ames to Waseca. But we just couldn’t imagine being apart.

When he came down to visit, we would explore what Iowa had to offer. We would go hiking in State Parks. Visit Des Moines, Pella, and other small towns in the area. Work on school projects together. Went to events on campus. It was like he became an honor student to Iowa State. Everything was perfect. However, as the months went on, I started to realize that while I loved what I was doing and studying, architecture was just no longer what I saw myself doing long term. I missed being in the classroom and teaching kiddos. After a lot of long talks and heart to hearts, I decided to change my major and go back to getting my degree in teaching Elementary Education.

It was time to take the next step in my life. And it was time for AJ and me to take the next step in our life together too. We decided that when I moved back to Minnesota, we would move to St Paul and give living together a whirl. We already saw each other every weekend as it was, why not make it official. Plus it would save us some money too. Stay tuned for next week, on The Story of Us, when I dive into our first few years living together and the places we called home!

The Story of Us