So how did it end?

When we last spoke, I was telling you of my habit. Actually, I told you about it and now we'll move on. I'm not that kind of girl.

The end of our senior year was sad. BN and his parents were moving to the Miami area after graduation so BN's dad could help his dad with the family business. BN was going to FSU and that wasn't a surprise and I was heading to JU to study art education. We'd be just a few short hours away. What was a surprise was his dad suggesting that we break up. He convinced BN that it would be best to break up now in case we found other people once we set off into the big wide world of college. The long distance relationship wouldn't be hanging over his shoulders etc, etc. So we broke up and I hated his dad for it and I hated BN even more, no matter how logical it all sounded.

I worked at the local moving company over the summer to save money for college. It was a lot of fun because there were quite a few other college kids working there and it helped distract me. One early morning in August, I packed up my Dodge Omni, kissed my mom and sister goodbye and sat on the porch to take one last breath of fresh country air. I ended up taking another and then another and then I called my mom and chickened out of driving to Jacksonville. She was as relieved as I was that I wasn't going to Florida. I just couldn't make that trip by myself and she couldn't get away to go with me.

I unpacked, called the moving company and asked if I could keep working until the spring semester started at the local college. I ended up working through the spring and the summer. I took art classes, went out with friends, worked and kept busy but also became restless. I had two guys try to win my heart but it was still taken even though I didn't realize it at the time. The following February, I enlisted in the delayed entry program with the Navy. This meant that even though I had signed up, I wouldn't leave until May.

In March, my heart decided I should write BN and let him know I'd be leaving. We never really said a proper goodbye because I was too busy crying and acting like a silly school girl - which I technically was - but even still. So I wrote a letter and tucked it in his birthday card. A week later, BN called and it was as if he'd never left. Two weeks after that and BN, all the way from Florida, was standing on my doorstep to take me to dinner. I was very cautious with BN. I was 20 now and knew I was leaving and I didn't want to let the past rule my future. If it wasn't still just high school puppy love, then I needed to treat the present as if we'd just met and see where it went. In April he did something unexpected. BN signed up for the Navy so he could follow me.

He signed up for the buddy program where he would leave the same day as I did and go to the same bootcamp. What would happen after that was never considered or at least we didn't know at the time. As it always goes with the government, our well-oiled plan did not go as planned. I went to Orlando and he went to Great Lakes. He graduated bootcamp a few days before I did and he came to my graduation with my dad. Then we spent the next week before our Navy schools with his parents.

My first day at "home", I devoured half a cheesecake and then fell into a deep, cream cheese induced coma. When I woke up it was to BN staring lovingly at me. He helped me up and then asked if I loved him as much as he loved me. I told him that I loved him very much and he pulled the most beautiful ring from his shirt pocket and proposed to me. Sadly, the week went by quickly and off we went, separated once again. You know that saying about if you let something go...we sure put that theory to the test, many times.

While at our schools we found out that unless we were married by the time we graduated, we would not be stationed together. We could literally be a world apart. So I set about arranging for a license and an appointment with the Justice of the Peace in Tennessee and BN bought the rings in Chicago. It certainly was not part of the plan but we felt it was important to improvise to stay together.

My roommate and her beau of the week were our witnesses and in a flash it was over. We didn't have an expensive wedding with cake and flowers and bridesmaids. We didn't have an extravagant honeymoon but instead stayed at the Navy Lodge just outside of my base. We had the most important components though, each other, and Mariah Carey's first album will always hold a special place in my heart as will El Burrito.

And there you have it. Robinella and BN Forever.

Love,

~R

ps Thanks for hanging in there through all the delays. Hope it was worth it for you. It was for me.

pss Alls well that ends well. Mom finally got her Frenchman. BN is half French-Canadian. lol.