If I had to tell you one of the biggest regrets in my life, it would be not moving to Ohio sooner. Which, sounds ridiculous, right? Why would anyone move to Ohio? The rows of corn and beans, strange language “ope” and being from Michigan is dangerous. (If you know, you know).

You see, there was someone waiting for me all of this time, and I had no idea. I’ve always wanted a fairy tale or something straight out of a romance book for a love life. I had gave up a long time ago when I met my Ex on Bumble, a dating app.

I was stuck in a bad relationship for three years. I’ll spare you the details because this post isn’t about him, plus if I am being honest, his story ain’t worth telling. So I’ll just say this, he was simply not a good person and I should have left sooner than I did.

Anyways, I had a chance to leave sooner. My father got restation in Ohio while we were living in Virginia and instead of me moving with them, I decided to stay another year or so. Now most days I wonder what life would have been like if I moved a year earlier.

When I decided to leave Virginia, I moved back in with my parents and lived upstairs. I felt like a shell of a person, beat up, chewed up and spit out. I had no idea who I was, what I wanted and where I was going from there. Since I left my job on a whim, I had nothing lined up here so I spent a lot of time listening to music and sitting outside with my dogs. (And yes, I took the dogs).

I was trying to focus on anything but myself. Plus, Nyx is a blue heeler who required a lot of energy excertion. I was teaching her how to retrieve a frisbee and I was playing fetch with Luna, my pitbull, and her chuck it between throws.

Mentally, I had given up on everything. I had no prospects in dating, and I barely knew what I was going to do to thrive here. I was preparing to accept Ohio as a soft landing and eventually leaving to go live in Michigan where my brother and the rest of my family lived.

Have you ever heard the saying, “You’ll find love when you stop looking?” because I know know this as true. From the moment the neighbor dogs wandered into my backyard and greeted me (As they typically did, I had treats on me while I was training) and instead of the mother or step-father walked through the yard to yank them over – Brandon walked through the trees in the clearing.

I cannot tell you how I earned the courage to tell him to let the dogs play because Hank and Nyx were best friends, or even muster the courage to ask him questions about himself. We were only out there for a few hours, but I felt like my spark was relite that day.

Somehow, it became an unspoken rule of ours, to meet after I got off of work while the sun was setting and let the dogs run around and play. Each time we were outside for longer and longer. When the star shined bright above us, We sat down and looked up constellations. I fell in love with him that night.

The boy next door would ask me to watch movies with him, ask me for my number, and take me on our first date. When October hit, he asked me to be his girlfriend, on our two year anniversary, he asked me to marry him. On our third anniversary, we got married.

Some days it is hard for me to wrap around my head how perfect our love story is, but every day I am grateful for it.

Still, I imagine some days what it would have been like meeting him a year earlier, maybe dating him sooner. However, maybe we weren’t where we needed to be mentally and physically to meet. It was fate, I have to trust it’s timing.

Now, I do not think of moving out of Ohio. (Maybe one day, but we will see). The rows of corn, snow storms, ridiclous football teams, and all of this space – doesn’t seem too bad.

Ohio gave me the love of my life, and I’ll spend the rest of my life being thankful for him. And with that, I am hopping off to go get my morning cup of coffee in my ridiclously cute valentines day mug (Thanks Target)!