Hello and welcome back! I am taking you back to the beginning to hit some milestones. Everyone thought we were a little crazy, but Kira and I didn’t care. Let me set the scene. It was around December 2021 when Kira and I met, and we started dating. We were commuting to see each other. I was living at my parents and Kira was living at her great aunt’s; both of our living situations were brought on because of defining life circumstances. The drive was about 32 miles one way which was just long enough to be annoying, but not too far to call it quits. By the time we were 2 to 3 months into it we started joking around; “wouldn’t it be nice” and “what ifs” started flying around. Around this marker we went on our first vacation together; we spent about a week in Mammoth with one of my best friends for her birthday. We went up a little early so we had a mini trial of being on our own. That trip was amazing and so much fun. It solidified our foundation.
As a little more time went on we switched into the “well it wouldn’t hurt to just look” phase, although just between me and you I think it was already pretty obvious. Then separately, for different reasons, we both decided that we were ready to move out and into a new place. In that economic environment getting an apartment by yourself was laughable. The wheels started turning after we started looking at apartments and their prices. Logistically it made sense dividing the charges in half. However, we were still so new to dating (only about 3-4ish months) when we started looking into living together seriously. We had a lot of discussions to make sure we both felt okay about taking a large leap in such a short amount of time. After talking it through, we decided to just take a leap of faith; there was just something that told us it would be okay. In addition, having the support of our families allowed for us to jump into something like this while still having our safety nets. We started touring and narrowing down where we were going to move in April.
By month 5, May, we found an apartment that we really like and hit all of the needs on our list. Within a couple days we received a call from a leasing agent informing us that they had a move in date ready for us in a couple of weeks. Then it hit us, we were moving in together! Filled with excitement and nervousness ,the next couple weeks flew by. In typical fashion we waited until the last minute to get anything prepared to move in. Then in one day we called in all the favors we could and had our friends and family help move us in. We finished by 3pm on day 1 and went out to eat Mexican food with my parents at a place near our new home.
After about two weeks of settling in and getting used to each other, Kira took off to Costa Rica. At that point we had just made it through the growing pains of adjusting to living with a significant other. We settled into a routine and mostly divided the chores. Now left to my own devices I was able to situate into the house by myself. It was a humbling experience. Although only a week, I was on my own for probably one of the first times in my life for that length of time. I quickly realized I would need to fill up my time. I was in-between jobs, waiting for my new one to start and had all the time in the world it felt like. Between the time difference, bad wifi, and the enjoyment of Kira’s trip I wasn’t able to stay in contact like we normally would living our regular lives. So while trying to make myself busy by reaching out to friends and planning activities to do, I realized I still just had too big of a void to fill. I needed an outlet and a way to solve the problem of giving my mind a busy task and remembering to tell Kira all the silly day to days I normally would. I landed on writing a short book for her, so when we would get a chance to talk while she was away we could focus on her adventure! I took notes during the day and wrote entries at night. I would start with a quote to sum up my day or give myself encouragement. Then I would get into all the hot topics of the day: where I went, what I did, and finally I would end with how the weather was that day. This book of sorts gave me an opportunity to get to know myself, be more present in my own life, and ultimately reminded me of why I liked to write. When Kira got home I showed her my book; she cried reading some of my entries, and she laughed at others. That is really when she decided to push me towards making a blog – to form a symbiotic relationship between my creative outlet to keep my mind busy and to give our story to others.
So Kira went on a cool adventure to Costa Rica, but you can keep reading to hear about my first trip overseas. Insert Bridesmaids quote you know the one. That’s right we’re going to France y’all!
