The next couple months, I’ll be reminiscing on a decade ago and the events that changed everything for me, when I feel like my life began and my purpose was found.
February 2011
I’d spent the second half of February feeling so excited and eager in my relationship and content in what my future would be. I was absolutely ecstatic that after being deployed nine months, Jack was home on his two-week mid-tour leave. I had spent every second of the 14 days he was back in Minnesota on his arm, skipping my college classes and work just to squeeze in one more minute of time with him. The last night he spent at home before heading back to Afghanistan to finish his tour, he got down on one knee and asked me to spend the rest of our lives together. That would be the last time he’d ever have the ability to get down on a knee. The next morning, we didn’t talk much as we drove to the airport. The sadness that hung between us and the uncertainty of when we would talk or see one another again was just heartbreaking for my newly engaged self. I tearfully hugged him goodbye at the airport and watched him walk away. As soon as he was out of sight, I sat down and sobbed. The excitement of our engagement was quickly shadowed by the immediate loneliness I felt. All I could do now was wait and hope. Three months left of his tour. Then I would move to Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, we’d get married, and I’d finish out college at Austin Peay State University. We had it all planned out…..
Little did I know, the journey was just beginning, and in only a week, my whole world was going to be flipped upside down. The future I had all planned out, obliterated.
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