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Sunday, February 6, 2011

(semi) Prepared for the unexpected

Little did I know a few years ago when I started dating my now fiance (Chris) what I was getting into, the adventure I'd embarked at 18 that would completely change the shape of my future.

I'm 22 now but it seems like a lot has happened in only 4 years. I was born and raised in Sarasota, Florida and I assumed after college I would return, find a job and a nice little home near my family. All that began to change in my sophomore year of college when I had to face a decision, to stay with Chris and expect the (somewhat) unexpected or stay my course in Florida.

In our sophomore year Chris applied and received a fellowship to become a FSO.  This meant graduate school out of state (there isn't a program available in Florida) and frequent moving. It really was an easier decision than I had imagined, I think I forced myself to second guess the decision but I was ready and willing to commit to  moving wherever this fellowship took us. Over the next year I thought, well there are plenty of schools on the east coast that he can attend, at least on the east coast I won't feel so far from my family. Let's just say I got a little hung up on living on the east coast.

Senior year of college we moved in together, got a dog and things were going (fairly) smoothly. Fair warning, if you move with your boyfriend maybe wait a few months before adding a puppy to the mix.  We became responsible for duties neither of us had dealt with in over 3 years, but we figured it out and things got a lot easier a few weeks into having her.

That's the first picture I have of Ada, we're in the back seat of my car bringing her home from Daytona.

This is the most recent picture I have of her. Just so everyone knows, she is a pure bred german shepherd, everyone likes to make claims that she's a Belgian tervuren, but she's not. Fact.

Senior year was difficult, Chris was waiting to hear back from grad schools and I chose to apply for a teaching program.  We waited, and waited to mostly hear back bad news.  I didn't get into the program and Chris didn't end up with many... (or really any) choices when it came to grad school. We were off to Denver, Colorado come September. I can't say this was easy news for me to hear, actually I was quite dramatic.  I had come to terms with living hundreds, even thousands of miles from my family but I was prepared to share a coast, the east coast. I'd never been to Colorado and really had no interest in going to Colorado but here I am.  So here I am now living in Aurora (just outside of Denver) with Chris and Ada dealing with snow for the first time.

I guess that was my first lesson in being prepared for anything, especially with this program and being an FSO's future EFM. We're now living in Denver, Chris has his posting for his summer internship (he's going to Kigali, Rwanda) and although we've only been in Denver a few months we're well aware that Washington, D.C. will be our next stop.

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