In Clemson, SC, the weather is always beautiful; lush trees, blossoming greenery and strong architecture abound on the beautiful campus, and the trend continues as it blends into historic downtown. But this day was especially great... Which, sadly, I can only say now in hindsight. How I wish I had realized at the time that I was living the life! I was finishing up my senior year at Clemson University, planned on moving to Charleston by the end of the year to pursue my dreams of becoming a doctor, and had just avoided major heartbreak.
Rather than see this as the lucky day that it was, my entire senior year in college was a time of turmoil and licking wounds. My grandfather, the one strong and steady male role model in my life, died suddenly in an accident; I had left a three-year relationship after too long a period of tolerating emotional abuse, and didn't see myself ever committing myself to someone again. I had never had such difficulty seeing the forest for the trees and my perspective was so clouded that, at that moment in time, I couldn't see the true blessing God had set in my path.
March 17, 2007 was the day I met my best friend. We may not have known it at the time, but we have been working on healing each others hearts since that very moment in time. We instantly became friends, and though some personal obstacles stood in our way, we always knew deep down inside that we would be a special part of each other's lives.
So, for almost two years we got to know each other and become the best of friends amongst a common social circle. My best girlfriend from college was dating one of his roommates, he occasionally visited our friends in Charleston and would be sure to let me know he was in my neck of the woods, etc. etc. Yeah yeah, so we knew we were right for each other eons ago - why did we wait so long to be together, as a couple, as one?
Let me explain briefly - my future husband is not only my best friend, he is everyone's best friend. Sometimes too good of a friend (but that may just be me, because I'm a wee-bit protective of my loves in life). And, out of respect for our friends, he waited patiently for the right moment to come along before he finally asked me on our first date.
Unfortunately, "finally" came during my first semester of medical school. To be completely honest, I wouldn't have accepted an invitation to dinner from any other man at that time in my life! And we are now almost a year and a half into the rest of our lives, over three years of knowing each other, and though times get tough we couldn't be happier (unless we could possibly be less than four hours away from each other... That would be nice).
But we ARE four hours apart from each other, and there is nothing we can do about it at the moment. He's still in Clemson, receiving his BS in Chemical Engineering last spring and is now working on his Master's in Environmental Engineering and an MBA, and I am accomplishing what I have dreamt of since I was a little girl - becoming a doctor to better the lives of my patients. We won't be able to be together, in the same place, until we graduate in 2012. We didn't plan it out to happen so "perfectly imperfectly", but it is our lives. And this is our story.
I don't think I am so self-important that I deserve a blog with hundreds of followers. This is really something I've wanted to do for the two of us, to document the happenings of what is ours at the moment. Being four hours apart takes its toll on a relationship, and I don't want us to ever forget why we're tolerating these circumstances for the time being... And, in a world full of skeptics, I want it to be known that true love does still exist in the real world. Outside of movies, outside of novels, our story is true and, to most people, relatively unremarkable. I may be biased, but I believe it is truly wonderful!
"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being 'in love', which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident."
- St. Augustine
