2 years and a lot of changes later....

Two years ago, Justin and I decided to make 17 nights of phone calls become a much anticipated face-to-face interaction. From our first date, or maybe even before, I guess we should have known that our relationship would be fun, but all too often bring unexpected occurrences. When we finally decided to meet, we were supposed to go to dinner at Applebee’s in Greenville, SC and then go bowling. It so happened that neither of the locations we had planned to visit were even in existence, much less open. So we came up with plan B, going to downtown Greenville, sitting by the waterfall and talking.

But let me back up… to explain why it took 17 nights of phone calls before Justin and I could actually have a first date.  A few days after we began our nightly ritual of Justin calling shortly after 9pm so we could capitalize on the ‘free nights and weekends’ minutes , Justin was caught in a Police trap and pulled over for crossing a train track when the red lights were flashing. Ordinarily this would have been just a minor traffic offense, but while he was pulled over the policeman discovered Justin was driving on a suspended license (unbeknownst to Justin). His license had been suspended due to an “unpaid” speeding ticket in a small town in Tennessee a year earlier. Justin had in fact mailed the money in but the record keeping in Tennessee must be worse than ours here in South Carolina (that’s for you, Trav) and it was never taken off of his record. For what felt like the longest time, we couldn’t meet due to a misunderstanding and the record keeping in Tennessee.

Nevertheless, back to our first date: A night of handholding and a good-bye kiss later, I was as giggly as a middle school girl- this comparison holds more weight to me now because I teach them and know just how excited they get when a boy looks their way. So yes, I was all smiles. But apparently I was not as sure as Justin was… for on his ride home he called his best friend, Mark. When asked how it went, Justin replied, “I’m gonna marry her.” Just what a wife wants to hear! No denying that the boy had good insight about that!

In the first few weekends of our relationship we had to tackle one of our biggest obstacles: being college football rivals. As everyone who knows me knows, I am a huge Gamecock fan! The same goes for Justin, however we couldn’t be lucky enough to be die hard for the same college football team, no. He’s a Georgia Bulldog all the way. Our extreme loyalties were shown to each other on our third date: UGA vs. USC at Williams-Brice Stadium. Justin was a very good UGA fan, but I guess he had no other choice considering we were sitting in the USC Student Section. We both knew that either way the game ended, one of us would have to show restraint from gloating and the other had to keep from pouting and not take it personally. This was a challenge for me because I always like to make excuses (like all Carolina fans) after a lose…I couldn’t this time because Justin had a come back for everything. Thankfully we got through it…and another season after that! One of the first changes I experienced in our relationship was for me to find UGA football tolerable.

Families were then met and quickly we began to take up as much of each other’s time as we could. Seeing each other every other Saturday soon became every Saturday and we were both discovering how hard life would be without each other.

Our first year of dating culminated with a road trip to Canada which ended in a proposal in Niagara Falls. Definitely spectacular.

It didn’t take long for us to “plan” out our future. We had to take into consideration that I had to work in SC upon graduation because of my scholarships. This didn’t seem like an issue since Clayton, GA is only 10 or so miles from the SC line. As time progressed and the Education budget cuts became more critical, we began to realize our original plan would have to be amended. Come to find out, Oconee County had taken some of the biggest budget cuts across the state of South Carolina. There were no jobs available, not even for Special Education teachers. So, with determination to be together, we started applying for jobs all across the state of South Carolina.

In April, Justin received a job offer from Bartlett Tree Experts in Augusta, but it wasn’t until the Tuesday before our wedding that I secured a job with Kennedy Middle School in Aiken. At this point there was no turning back. We were moving.

So, that Saturday, two became one and I became Mrs. Justin Tyson. We headed off on our honeymoon to Yosemite National Park for a week and tried not to think of all of the changes that lay ahead.

Upon our return, Justin was no longer single, living alone in a small town, working in a very good government job, or having to call me every night at 9pm. And for me, my last name was not the only thing that changed. I was no longer a college student living having to share a bathroom with two girls in Spartanburg, I would no longer be getting housing, school, and groceries paid for from my scholarships. No, I had to pay bills.

One of the bills we had to pay was the mortgage on Justin’s house. As soon as we realized we would be moving, we began working feverishly to fix it up to sell. We worked hard, but to our dismay, we failed to complete the job before moving.

Now that we are living in North Augusta the progress on the house has been slow. We have made several trips, but not as many as we would have liked. On one of the trips in late July, we packed as much stuff into Justin’s Dodge truck and headed home. We arrived late that night and agreed I would just unpack everything the next day. It turns out no unpacking would be necessary due to the fact that at 5:45am I looked out the window to see his truck engulfed in flames.

Another change: new car. After we spent three weeks waiting for insurance to make sure we did not commit arson and for them to send us our check, we were ready for a new car. We spent our time weighing our options and comparing the pro’s and con’s of getting another truck or getting a more fuel efficient vehicle. We compared prices online and when we received our check we had made up our mind and we were ready to make an offer. We were getting a Prius.

We now get 500 miles on a 10 gallon tank. I filled up with gas today and couldn’t help but smile as I got back in the car. This is the car Justin and I needed when we were living two hours apart.

The last few months of our lives have seen many changes, but we are happier than ever. We discuss daily how much better it is to have someone else to share in our happy times as well as our disasters. Through it all we have learned more about each other and our relationship has done nothing but grow.