It
was nearly 13 years ago, August 2000, when I moved to this town between the
mountains. I’d been an
official high school graduate for all of three months and this place was my
next chapter, my college town. It was
viewed as a quick pit stop, my stepping stone to bigger and better things. I
would come, get educated, and then move on. I’m not sure where my “move on”
destination was, but this place wasn’t on my short list {or long list, quite
honestly}. I liked it here well enough though. I moved in with nine {!!!} great
roommates, became bff’s with some girls from my program, and got a job at Jamba
Juice on Yellowstone.
It was late December of that same year when
I meet Spencer. And by July we had both fallen truly, madly, deeply in to dating
each other. Things moved quickly for a couple of Mormon kids {ha} and by the
early part of 2003 we started talking marriage. Over time ‘my life’, and ‘your life’,
was given a fancy little title of ‘our
life’ and we spent a good portion of our time sharing future dreams and
plans. We’d marry. Finish what was left of our education. And then move far,
far away from our college town {naturally}
and live happily ever after.
We bought our first little house on 8th
Avenue a couple months prior to our wedding. And then on July 12, 2003 we
married.
Life was so dreamy as newlyweds in our
cozy yellow house on 8th Avenue. And those years of just me + him
are some of my most prized memories. Around our second year of marriage we
decided it was a good time to move a baby crib into the guest room. And
honestly, the schedule was bedazzled with perfection: we’d get pregnant in
July, I’d graduate in December, the baby would come in April, and we’d
celebrate the babies first Christmas in the same house that we celebrated our
first Christmas together three years earlier. In the spring Spence would get
his diploma and then we’d move far, far away from our college town {naturally} and live happily ever after.
In July we found out we were pregnant. I
graduated in December. And baby Brynlee arrived March 22, 2006 three weeks
earlier than we’d expected.
Spence was offered an engineering
internship for a local semiconductor company in the fall of 2006, and although
we knew we wouldn’t be in this town for much longer the work {and pay} was so
much better than his previous janitorial job that he took the internship
position without hesitation. It was good to get his feet wet, we reasoned, and
it would make him more saleable to future engineering companies that existed
outside of this college town.
That year we wrapped enormous empty boxes
in pretty Christmas paper and barricaded the Christmas tree from our curious 9
month old. And then with the New Year we
started talking graduation and future career plans. Every plan had one thing in
common: it existed outside of this town. The time had come, and we couldn't wait to move on.
Honestly, Spencer never even typed up a
resume or filled out an application to try to market himself as an engineer. A
month or so before graduation he was offered a full-time engineering position
with the company he was interning for. The company that was in this town, the town that we’d been so
fixed on leaving. And something about it felt right. In fact, everything about
it felt right. We knew it was what we were supposed to do.
I can still, very clearly, remember our often
repeated conversation when trying to decide if we should take the offered
position. You know, I would say between
gritted teeth, mainly trying to convince myself, we can be happy wherever we are.
And here we are. Thirteen years later. And,
can I just say: I LOVE THIS TOWN!! Like, all caps and exclamation points kind
of love. This is home. This is where our story is being written. This is where
we belong – right here in this town between the mountains.
I'm so glad it's home.
