and that was four years ago. And in six months I will be Mrs. Mikael Åkerfeldt
LOL
I love telling this story, so I'm going to tell it:
When I was a junior in highschool, I worked at Taco Bell. Since I sucked at putting the food together, they'd always throw me in the very, very back, where I'd basically spend the night cutting up boxes, boiling the "fried" beans, cutting up stuff in the freezer, and doing dishes.
That summer, I basically had no social life. The previous summer, I'd played in a band, but since then my family had decided I needed to get a job. I was working almost full time, and the lack of a car and dependence on parents for rides to and from work pretty much meant that I could only work after 4 pm. By default, I got shafted with a really bizarre 4-12 pm schedule. I'd go to work, then come home, shower, read or play some games, go to bed, wake up at like noon, and then have precious few hours again to do things that I wanted to do.
My only friends were other people I worked with. This included a gay kid who was also lousy enough to get thrown in the back and some of his friends who would come in during break. One day, my mom had to drop me off early so I hung out with the gay kid and a couple of his friends. Among his friends was a very cool, unique looking girl. I started talking with her and found out that she was a really big Nightwish fan. She also was really into fantasy literature and stuff. Basically, both were things I was obsessed with at the time. The only problem was she was just coming off a 2 year relationship with her ex (who, by the way, was also there at the time).
We started talking on the phone and online and stuff, and started hanging out a little bit. A big issue, I remember, was that her and her ex were still kinda being physical with one-another, even though he had already cheated on her and broke up with her. It was not a good situation at all, and it seemed to me like she was letting herself into an almost-abusive situation.
Anyway, after like 2 weeks of her juggling between me and her ex, she decided to cut ties with her ex "once and for all." We started going out, and all the sudden half of all of her old friends turned against her and starting spreading some nasty rumors about me. Lots of drama occurred. I'll say even the first 6 months of my relationship were very weird, because she went to school with her ex and I went to a different school, and every once in awhile something would happen between them (nothing physical, but, for example, he would try and talk to her about things or try and get us to all hang out together). Not only that, but, in the beginning, she'd always just talk about things her and her ex used to do together. It was SO annoying. Every other sentence out of her mouth would be something like "Me and _______ used to go here" or "Me and ________ saw that before." I hated that, and almost ended things after the first couple of months, but no in retrospect I just chalk it up to immaturity on her part.
But after than, she REALLY cut him out of her life. I forget why. I think he came onto her really strong after a class, or asked her to get back together, or something that just crossed the line and made her realize she had to make a choice. Things got exponentially better after that.
Anyway, it's been over 5 years now. I feel like it's been even longer-- in a good way. We started dating when she was 15-16 and I was 17-18. Now she's 21 and I'm 23. I really feel like I've grown into an adult (kinda) with the person I'm with, and I'm glad to have able to watch her grow and change over the years too. I know some couples grow apart, but, for some reason, we've always been able to realize when that's happened and figure out ways to coil things back around toward each other in the end. So far, we've been through lovely a couple of phases: 1.) the "infatuation mixed with drama" phases, the 2.) "giddy highschool relationship" phase 3.) the difficult "one of us is in college and one of us is still in high school“ phase 3.) the "we've sure grown far apart while one of us was in college in one of us is still in highschool" phase, the 4.) the "we're both in college, live in the same apartment, and having an awesome time playing house" phase and now 5.) the "one of us is on the other side of the world for the next 21 months" phase.
It's been a trip so far, but it's been a really great and fulfilling one. I don't know what's next. Probably the 6.) "joyous reunion" phase 7.) "realization of adulthood crises" and 8.) probable marriage.
Phew.... I could keep going on. But I'll stop now. I think I'm being a bit obnoxious.