It’s hard to believe, but I’ve had this site going for over five years now. My first post was July 2, 2012, when I was just 21 years old. Now, as I write this, I’m 27, having recently celebrated my birthday.
Every year around my birthday, I reflect back on the year behind me. Each year brings new experiences, new people, new challenges, new dreams and new opportunities. This past year was no different. Overall, honestly? It was pretty great.
Some of the highlights, under the cut:
In the course of a National Hockey League, a player will typically skate for anywhere from five to 25 minutes, with the occasional exception. Those minutes will be spread out over the 60-minute-long game, broken up into periods with a pair of 17-minute intermissions between.
Those players are professionals; they get paid to play, and train year-long to keep their bodies in top shape. When the final buzzer sounds after 60 minutes, they enjoy a meal, then go home to spend time with their families, rest, and relax.
The 11-Day Power Play was a hockey game… but it was nothing like that. This world-record breaking feat saw a group of 40 guys train for months to spend 11 straight days at the rink. Their shifts were roughly four and a half hours long, with only brief, strict 10-minute breaks for the Zamboni to resurface the ice or shovels to clean the ice every hour.
Two years ago, I took the biggest risk of my life – and nothing has ever felt so right! In May 2015, I asked my then-boyfriend (now-husband) to marry me. It was awfully scary, but obviously – he said yes!
We’d been dating almost eight months. The way things were progressing, it felt right. We’d already talked about ‘forever,’ and we’d just signed a lease on our first apartment. Maybe part of it was that surreal, hopeful longing people in love have. But it felt right to me, so I went for it.
Relationships are all about what feels right for you and the other person involved. There’s no timeline I can point to that says “date for this long, engaged for this long, etc.”
Every relationship is unique, and it’s up to you & your partner to determine the course of action and what’s right for you and your journey together.
Just over seven months in, I knew I wanted to marry him. At some point, I thought about asking him… and then I thought, can I really do this? Hell, why should I have to wait for him to make the first move?
That’s part of why I’m writing this blog, two years later. When I thought of the idea, I asked around the Internet about it. Is it common/acceptable for a woman to ask a man? Today’s society is more modern and YES, it’s okay. But a lot of the relationship blogs I read were adamantly AGAINST a woman asking a man. They called it backward and said a man would feel emasculated. To hell with that. Any man who doesn’t support a strong woman making her own decisions and moves isn’t a man I’d want to marry anyway.
thoughts of Melissa 