Timeline: Twenty-two

(To catch up: One Through Six, Seven And Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve And Thirteen, Fourteen And Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen and Nineteen and Twenty and Twenty-One.)

2004, aged twenty-two

Natalie and I are in California, ringing in the new year with a thrilling game of Cranium. My phone rings around 10 p.m. and Mike is on the other end ringing in his own new year. I haven't heard from him since early December when we had one night of flirting and kissing and many strong drinks. He's drunk in Texas, and he loudly wishes me a happy new year. We're off the phone before I even realize I'm glad he called. Ten days later, I'm back in Texas, and I drive up to Fort Worth to see Crystal off to Connecticut where she's taken a job. We're out to dinner at On the Border when Mike walks in, late and in a hurry. He slides in next to me and something clicks again. The next day we spend together, from morning to night, before we officially say goodbye to the friend who introduced us. We go to breakfast, we go to the movies, we drive around, and as we're making dinner plans, Mike suggests we all go to his aunt's house for a BBQ. I meet his parents on the day that will become our anniversary, and I love them instantly.

Mike and I make plans to see one another back in College Station, and so a few days later when I return to town, he invites me over to watch a movie and to drink some wine and that, my friends, is that. There is no official first date, no real talk about where we are and what we want. We just become this thing and although it's as confusing as all things are at the beginning, we spend a lot of time together. I am neglecting school and friends and work to take walks and eat greasy food and drink wine on his couch with him, and I won't be proud of all that neglect in hindsight, but some of the most beautiful memories of my life stemmed from it, so I have to believe everything worked out just as it was supposed to. 

In mid-July we travel to St. Louis together for our six-month anniversary. (I wrote a little about that trip here.) We've already traveled together, we've already exchanged "I love you's" and we've already become somewhat serious, but this trip is exquisite in that I begin to believe in us. You hear it all the time, that this person meets that person and they both "just know." It simply wasn't like that for Mike and me and that may be in part because -- at the beginning -- I didn't have the ability to trust in much. Our love took time to grow and our bond was built over laughter and good food and fun travels, not over one knowing look. Our lives begin to intertwine, on this trip especially, and where our futures used to be talked about in drastically different directions, they now start to head in the same one.

That summer, Mike and I hit more pot holes and fall more in love, I say goodbye to friends who graduate and move on -- friends who are still hurt by my semester spent more or less ignoring them, but friends who have since forgiven me, thank god. Come September I take a job -- for my last year in College Station and in school -- as an assistant preschool teacher. I work every day from 7-11 a.m. and it's exhausting, and I never make it out of bed in time to look all that presentable, but it's one of the best jobs of my life. I occasionally count down the hours to quitting time because the kids are being especially loud or cleaning up after the art project is especially boring, but when I look back on teaching those 11 kids, my heart still bursts. 

Everything changes this year. I go from a single, bar-loving girl who had all the time in the world for her friends and her own needs to a girl in love for the first time in a long time, and for the first time, period, with someone worthwhile. I lost things and gained things, I sacrificed things and took advantage of other things, I found myself even though it took some time to recognize the reflection. I had a very cool, very fun life before, and this is the year I began sharing it. 

Comments

[Camels & Chocolate]

This reminds me I totally forgot to finish my own timeline, ahhhh!

[Kerri Anne]

2004 sounds like a great year.

I don't know that I've told you yet, but I have loved reading your timelines. I think it's such a great idea, and a great writing/memory exercise. so often we can forget who we were and where we came from if we don't take the time to remember.

[auntie]

i love your timeline posts - not only because they're fun to read, but because i'm forever amazed at your memory! i can hardly remember what i did two hours ago, let alone two years ago. yes, i'm old.

[Jess]

Wow. What a big year of transition that was. I'm glad your friends turned out to be understanding about it all.

[Dianna]

I remember laughing out loud about the I love you sharing story! Sounds like 2004 was a great year for you both.