Virtute.org

It wasn’t what I was expecting.  I’d just broken off a relationship with an interesting but insane girl from Ukraine, and I was not really in a mood to be serious.  I decided I was going to date the next fairly normal American girl I met, and behold, there was a young Kathleen.  A Mormon girl at BYU, from the boring mid-west, and seemingly pretty nice.  After 11 days of dating, we were engaged.  4 months later, we were married.  We’d known each other less than 6 months.  And here we are 9 years later.

In that time, I’ve had 6 jobs and started 2 companies (it sounds less stable than it was).  We’ve had 3 children, each one stranger in new and interesting ways.  We’ve moved three times: from our home in Springville to Ohio, back to our Springville home, than back to good old Orem, my home town.  We’ve had 5 cats, 3 of them still with us.  We’ve also had mice, rats, a hamster, and 3 tarantulas (one still with us).  We’ve gone through 7 cars; 2 Japanese, 4 American, and 1 German.  We’ve driven to both the east and west coasts.

We’ve learned an awful lot.  Utah folks forget how different we are; I was 23 and Kathleen was 21 when we were married.  That’s pretty weird in a world that seems to celebrate perpetual adolescence, but it’s nothing unusual here.  The point is, 23 is awfully young, and I had to grow up pretty quickly.  I wasn’t even employed when we were married (I lost my job during a bout of mono).  Things haven’t always been easy.  At one point, we sold nearly all our possessions to pay our bills when one of my businesses foundered.  We both worked graveyard shifts for about a year after that as we caught back up.

Even in our struggles, life has been sweet.  While this life isn’t exactly what I would have expected, Kathleen has made it far better than I could have hoped.  9 years isn’t any particular milestone, but I’m grateful for every one of them.