The Year of the Bicycle

Will and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary this past Tuesday (July 26). I remember talking about the ambiguity of the date we officially "got together" during the first few months we were dating and finally deciding on that date. Getting Will to remember it is another story...

As the day drew near I found myself reminiscing about the time we have spent together. Our first year was exciting. There was a lot of traveling involved... trips to Greenvile, to Columbus, Will coming to Atlanta, Spring Break at Ft. Walton (with dozens of airplanes!), Savannah, D.C., my first camping trip and numerous hiking trips. It was The Year of the Airplane. We bonded at first over our love of everything that flies and spent the first year getting to know each other and all of our passions.

This past year was The Year of the Bicycle. Although the first year had more "exciting" events, and this past year had many bumps in the road and was very difficult at times, I enjoyed our second year more. We bonded even more through Will's passion for cycling and my interest in learning it. I learned so much about him, and about myself, this year. He never ceases to amaze me. Will has become the friend that I have always been looking for; the one who you can count on to answer the phone in the middle of the night, to come pick you up from the airport at 2am carrying a pillow and your favorite stuffed animal, who will drive 30 minutes to give you a hug, who defends you when you need it, stands up for you, and a million other things to show that they care. He is there when I need someone to lean on, gives me pep talks when I need inspiration, and pushes when he knows I can do better.

The past few weeks were especially rough, given the rollercoaster that I was riding. But after an especially difficult talk we had, I decided to get off the rollercoaster and be happy. I don't know what caused my emotions to tumble that way, but as I sat there and looked at him I knew I didn't want anything else and that I especially didn't want to make him hurt anymore.

Tuesday Will had an especially rough day with the applied physiology study, but he insisted on going out that evening. He surprised me with red roses (I never thought I would get some from him!) and took me to dinner at The Melting Pot. Dinner was wonderful (we realized that in 2 years we had never eaten somewhere with reservations :-p). We were there for 2 hours and both enjoyed a special meal and new experience. He told me that several years ago he never would've done something like that and that I show him so many new thing. It was awesome to hear because I know that he has definitely brightened my world and I hoped to do just a little for him.

He asked me that night what year 3 would be called, and I told him to ask on the night of our anniversary. But earlier today we decided it will be The Year of Awesomeness. :-)