Where did it all begin?
When my husband, Sam, and I first started dating, we were 16. We went to the same high school and lived in the same neighborhood. We had both just gotten out of relationships. Me, being me, I didn’t expect for the relationship to go anywhere. I thought maybe a couple months of dates here and there, seeing each other in between classes, and then we would go our separate ways. Well, one month came and went, then six, then a year. Now, we are almost 11 years into this and I wouldn’t want to do life with anyone else by my side.
As many high schools did back in the mid-2010s (and I’m sure before but I can only speak to my experience) they pushed college. In our English classes we spent a ton of time junior year filling out the common app, writing college essays, going on college tours, and trying to figure out what the heck we wanted to do with our lives. I thought I would go to college for dance and maybe open my own studio. I got accepted to the University of Akron in their dance department.
Sam was going to go to the University of Toledo. I think it was for sports therapy or something (truthfully, it’s been so long I forget now). After graduation, he went to our local community college where he majored in ping pong. (We can joke now but he seriously skipped class to play ping pong in the rec area.) Clearly, he was not ready for college and he dropped out. He got in contact with one of his friend’s dad who was in the IBEW Local in our city.
It was a long road but in 2022 he graduated from the apprenticeship as a journeyman wireman. In the second half of 2024, he decided to start traveling for work. He started working about an hour away from home so he came home every night. During Christmastime, he was laid off (travelers always get cut first) so he decided to look for work in another place. Lucky for us, Columbus is a booming market for expansion since there are cornfields in the surrounding area. Columbus is a 2 hour drive from our house so we get to see him on the weekends.
It’s only been a couple weeks of him living in a different city, but we are managing.