Short Version:
Boy meets girl (in college) they date fall in love and get married. In the course of two years they live in 4 states, she graduates with a BA in Communication Studies and he enlists in the 18X program with the army.
Long Version:
We met during our freshman year at Grove City College in Pennsylvania we were friends of friends at the time and they wanted us to meet. The first night we spent time together ended up being a marathon event from 9pm to 5am (culminating in breakfast at McDonalds.) We talked, wandered, and evaluated the world through a new set of eyes. For the next few months we got together a few times a week for similar adventures, playgrounds, cemeteries, and forgotten roads filled our nights, and we still managed class during the day. When we parted in May neither of us realized the depth of what was forming.
I spent my summer working at a radio station in the northern part of Pennsylvania and Paul worked at a camp in the middle of the mountains in New Mexico (with no cell service.) We talked maybe 5 times that summer in between everything we both had going on. August rolled around, and to be honest I had fallen for him over the summer and I desperately hoped he felt the same. We went back to school on my birthday, Paul brought me a blowup guitar and lemon heads. That night we went for a walk and ended up looking at the stars from the top of an abandoned railway car. Our first kiss was thrilling and unexpected and launched the relationship that changed my life.
We dated throughout the fall, with a brief one month break for "figuring out" reasons and eventually said what we'd felt for a long time in December. "I love you." This was sadly followed by Paul revealing he was leaving Grove City and going back to Ohio to Kent State Stark, we vowed to make it work. The spring semester was a challenge highlighted by the occasional midnight runs to Youngstown, the half way point between us. We'd spend just a few stolen hours together in a truck stop or Waffle House before the rest of the world woke up. That summer Paul was back in New Mexico and I was once again in Pennsylvania, this time working at a grocery store. We talked whenever we could make it happen, a few times a month. Towards the end of the summer Paul had something else to reveal...he wasn't coming home from New Mexico, he had been accepted to Eastern New Mexico University and felt called to move out of his parent's house in Ohio an make a go of it, his reasons were deeper than I knew at the time...he was making a home for us.
Once again off into a long distance relationship. He visited on my birthday, I visited at Christmas. On New Years Eve we were in Almagordo, NM (the bottom of the mountain housing the camp) sitting in the car looking out over the city from a high place Paul asked me to marry him. I cried, alot, and of course said yes. Later that night he gave me his great-grandmother's ring. (Which actually ended up stuck on my finger and had to be cut off, but that's another story.) A few weeks later after thoughts, prayers, defending our position, an some tears we decided to get married in May, just five months later. I took a job at that very first McDonalds to save money, continued going to school and with my parents monetary support started planning a wedding, all with Paul working and going to school 1,500 miles away.
We eventually made it May and between my junior and senior year got married in a beautiful outdoor ceremony presided over by his father. It was more than I could have imagined and my family, his family, and my great wedding party worked wonders. I got married in my Mom's dress (tailored and updated) and then we left for a 2 week road trip honeymoon to our new home in Portales, NM where I had also been accepted to Eastern New Mexico University.
For the first six months Paul and I both worked two jobs and went to school, but by October it was obvious that ENMU hadn't been completely honest about my ability to graduate on time so I sent an SOS to my adviser at Grove City who hooked me up, pulled some strings, and got me readmitted with a spring graduation date. So, in December we packed up our whole apartment and our cat into our Saturn and drove straight back to Ohio and then Pennsylvania. Our friends in Grove City were nice enough to find us an apartment so we had somewhere to live. I started school in January. Paul was working 80 hours a week and I was working 30 plus 18 credits. May finally rolled around and I graduated with honors. At this time I didn't have job prospects (not for lack of trying) and Paul was considering the military again (he had right after high school.)
Now living in Ohio and with our decision finalized Paul enlisted in the 18X program and was told he wouldn't be leaving for 7 months. So, we both worked a bunch of different jobs sometimes wondering how the rent was going to be paid (it always was.) And Paul left March 13, 2013 for OSUT at Ft. Benning, GA. Shortly after I moved to Waukesha, WI to live with my lovely college roommate, where I am currently residing working as a waitress at a steakhouse and doing photography and Mary Kay in my spare time. So that's our love story, a story of trial and triumph, young love and invincibility, a story that won't ever end.
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