I did the one thing I NEVER thought I would in the name of LOVE.

 

I moved 600 miles away from friends and family.  600 miles in between my childhood home and my future.  All to be with Nicholas Holder.  As graduation day approached, I realized that I couldn’t imagine a life without Nick.

 

I knew for years that Nick had a dream to travel the world and he REALLY wanted to move back to his birth place in Florida.  He was always honest about his next stage in life and how he didn’t want to “settle” in an area that had winters.  He hated the snow sooo much that anything south of Missouri sounded like a dream.  Personally, I really enjoyed the snow.  It had always been my thought that you could always put more clothes on, but you couldn’t just take them all off when you were overheated in the hotter climates.  So Florida sounded like an absolute terrible idea.  LOL!

 

Now don’t get me wrong!  I LOVE Florida!  I love their bright sunny beaches, the laid back feel and vacation homes.  But living there in the heat didn’t sound appealing.

 

So what did I do, I moved to TEXAS.  LOL!  How about that contradiction?!?!

 

But to my credit, I honestly had never been to Texas before moving here in 2009.  I found the job of my dreams that paid practically minimum wage (or at least the wages that McDonald’s workers were picketing to get at the time) and moved into an old, semi-safe apartment complex paying little over $500 a month for.  My parents may not have been too excited about this venture, but to me, I was living the dream.  Moving to a city full of opportunity, full of places to explore and in a month sharing my “sweet” tiny apartment with the love of my life.

 

I honestly feel that by taking this HUGE leap of faith, that we sealed our future together.  We only knew each other in this city, so we were able to make it our own.  We shared amazing colleagues, we explored the city and we leaned on each other when missing our family and friends back home got tough.

 

I don’t think we would be the couple that we are today without moving.  I think we grew stronger together each year.  Professionally, we moved up the ladder, made more $ and moved to safer areas of the city.  Personally, we grew to respect and love one another the way we have never done before.  And slowly 4 years passed and we were engaged, but that’s for another story.

 

I hope you enjoy some photographs from our early days living the life in Dallas, TX.

 

 

If you missed Part 1 of our story, click here.