Marriage Part 2

                 
Tomorrow is my wedding anniversary. Another year has come and gone. The years pass with lightning fast speed. Eleven years have come and gone in what feels like a minute.

We met when I was 16, we worked at WaWa together. They made us take our lunch break together because we were minors. I'll never forget the day after we met, we were sitting in this tiny little break room eating lunch together and I was looking at him and I felt this weird feeling and I blurted out, "We will be married and have kids one day." I said it, out loud. And his 17 year old self looked at me like I was crazy and I felt embarrassed. There was some inventory of Sobe drinks in there with us and I said, "We can name our first child Sobe." I laughed, like I was making a joke. It was an odd thing to say, and I hated myself for saying it. I didn't even like him, I didn't even know this kid but I was tethered to him somehow. In that moment, only a day after we had met, I must have known. Consequently, when I was pregnant with our oldest daughter, I tried to convince him that we should have Sobe be her middle name to truly fulfill my revelation of that day. He shot me down on that one.

We became inseparable and then he left and joined the Army and in the months that ensued, it became very clear to me that I needed him in the same way that I needed air and food. Nothing was good when he was gone. The world was grey and I was profoundly sad. I would wait for the mailman to come everyday and when I saw those blue envelopes, for just 5 minutes in my day, I was happy. We decided we would get married and I started making plans. People don't generally get happy and excited for teenagers who are planning to get married but I didn't care. I was happy and excited. I worked after school and saved my money and purchased plates and towels and items I imagined I would need when we started our lives together.

I rented a big moving truck and drove cross country to our new home. Our first apartment was 350 square feet. I remember that because our rent was $1 per square foot a month. Haha. It was so tiny but it was OURS. We had a cow pasture in the backyard and it was beautiful. We moved in on a Saturday afternoon. I played my Boogie Nights soundtrack on CD and we started unpacking. "God Only Knows" came on and he took me by the hand and we danced together in our empty living room, between all the piles of boxes. We danced together and laughed and in that moment I believe I was the happiest I had ever been. I felt like everything would be okay.

I loved that little apartment. We were happy there. We spent the first years of our marriage playing house. We lived off of love and hope because Lord knows we didn't have any money. The children came and we became a family. We have had lots of surprises in 11 years - I'm excited to see what the next will bring!