2 Years (Katie)

Today is Brandon and my 2-year anniversary. Though he is younger than me, it doesn’t phase us one bit. Like any relationship, we have our ups and we have our downs; we have our laughs and our fights; and we have our smiles and our tears. The first year was smooth sailing compared to this second one, but they both have been amazing and … slightly educational. We have learned a lot about each other and we’re still learning about ourselves. Over the past two years I have graduated high school, got my one of my dream jobs coaching volleyball, got into college, and have now completed my freshman year of college. He has now graduated high school and has also gotten into college.

Brandon supported me unconditionally through a lot of sleepless weeks the first year we dated. I was working two jobs and going to school and he talked to me at 2 a.m. many nights to keep me awake while I finished papers and math problems. He drove with me to many volleyball tournaments and danced to and sang “Believe” by Cher on the way home to keep me awake. He took me to Water World for the first time and we had a blast. When my dogs got out for the first time, and I couldn’t find them, he was there with me every minute trying to find them until we had them all home safe. We watched Bronco and CC Tiger games together, and while he had to teach me a little bit about football before I knew what was going on, I learned to really love to watch it. The first year was also my only chance to get to see him in his natural habitat: the football field. While his team didn’t have a good year, he had a great one. It was really cool to see him so happy doing something. We discovered that we love to cook together and even if the kitchen ended up the biggest flour covered mess ever, we always have fun. We went to a TON of movies that first year. We managed to keep just about every ticket from every movie we went to which Brandon then used to make the coolest thing anyone has ever made me. He took pictures, movie tickets, and other mementos and made them into a collage that hung up above my desk at college. Then there was prom where we had our first dance together. It was the best dance I had ever been to up until this year’s prom. We went hiking, on midnight adventures, shopping, and mini road trips around the state. We celebrated our first Christmas together, our first New Years, Valentine’s Day and birthdays. He held my hand through breakdowns, a tattoo, and a piercing.
This second year has been very hard. We were 140 miles apart while I was in Fort Collins for college and he stayed in Colorado Springs to finish high school. Everyone told me that once I left, we would fall apart. I am so proud to be able to say that we made it through. It was hard, not impossible. This year, before school started, we went to Wyoming and explored Yellowstone National Park together. We went on an accidental 2-hour hike with no water, we found a tiny little attraction (one of the coolest things we saw), we saw a momma bear and her 2 cubs (hands down the coolest thing we saw), and we saw a ton of buffalo. When school started, it was hard to say goodbye. He helped me pack, move in, and shop for the stuff I didn’t know I would need. I held back tears hugging him goodbye and that was that. We saw each other about one weekend a month for the next 10 months with the exception of Christmas. We text non-stop, we always called to say goodnight, and we looked forward to the weekends we got to see each other. He introduced me to HuHot, the best Mongolian grill ever, and it became tradition to eat there every weekend he came up. My favorite day when he came up was when it was our 1-year and some odd amount of months and we made dinner in the dorm kitchen. He helped me study for tests whenever he could by holding up flash cards and quizzing me off of study guides. I owe many good test grades to his help. Then summer came for me. He helped me move back out. I went and watched him graduate and held back tears of happiness.

I love him. Simple as that really. The past 3 paragraphs are just fluff I suppose…but important fluff. I don’t know who else would have held my hand when I put myself through the pain of a tattoo; I don’t know who else would have talked to me on the phone until 2 a.m. when I needed to finish homework; I don’t know who else would deal with me on a daily basis besides him. We’re honest, blunt, stubborn, and loving people who luckily found each other because in the words of his mother “you’re both freaks, that’s are why you’re perfect for each other”.

-Katie