By: Jessica
He called me the next day to ask me out on a date, but when Friday arrived I was so nervous I came up with an excuse not to go. Later that night, Haley texted me saying she was at Matt’s and that I should come over. Thank goodness God gave me a push and I went out there. That Monday, we had a big snowstorm and Haley, our friend Corey, and I went to Matt’s to get snowed in. We were inseparable after that. A week and a half later, I told him I was going to wait for him to come home from Afghanistan, and we become an official couple. The weekend before he left, he surprised me by getting us a cabin in Tennessee, and we stayed there for the night. We exchanged Valentine’s Day gifts; I gave him a picture frame with our picture in it, and wrote around the picture. He gave me a necklace with an angel holding a “Support Our Troops” ribbon. I waited to see if he would tell me he loved me, but he didn’t. I was disappointed, but let it go because we had only been together for 3 weeks. That night, when we were laying bed about to go to sleep, I whispered that I loved him. He told me he loved me too, and it was the greatest feeling I had ever had. He left for Afghanistan on Valentine’s Day. All I could do when I left him to board the plane was hold my mom’s hand and cry.
I wake up in the morning and check my phone for any Facebook messages he may have sent me. If he has, I open my laptop to try to catch him online before I have to get in the shower to get ready for school. He gives me the “Good Morning Stinky,” and asks how I slept. Lately, I’ve been dreaming about being deployed with him, or him being home. He usually is just getting back to his room before dinner, so he Skypes me for a little bit, then leaves for the chow hall. I have a summer class at 11, so I get in the shower and start getting ready for school and work. He usually makes it back to Skype some more before I have to leave for school, so we talk for a little while before I have to leave the house. He tells me he’s bored, how much he misses me, and how excited he is about going to the beach when he comes home for leave. I don’t say too much, it’s too early to get excited about his leave. But I tell him I miss and love him and can’t wait for him to come home.
My first summer class happens to be Terrorism and Political Violence. On days we talk about current events, it’s hard to pay attention. I almost get tired of hearing about it, considering I live it every day. Matt usually stays online, so we can IM if I am not interested in listening to the lecture. He tries to type funny things to get me to laugh out loud in class, which usually works and is embarrassing. His days are usually boring and uneventful (thank goodness), so the silliness begins when he has nothing else to talk about. When class is getting ready to end, we say our “good night” and “have a good day at work” and “I love and miss you twice around the moon and back” and I leave to go to work. Work is the hardest part of the day for me. I miss looking forward to going to see Matt after work. Now I just try to make it through another day until he comes home.
Some nights after work I will go out to my parents or try to go to dinner with one of my friends. It helps take the deployment off my mind. But on nights I have nothing to do, all I can think about is Matt, and how much I miss him…and why in the world he calls me “Stinky.” At 9:50pm every night I am on Skype waiting for him to wake up and we talk before he goes to work. At 10:30pm we say our “good night” “have a good day” and our “I love and miss you twice around the moon and back” and he goes to work and I go to sleep. He’s the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing I think about when I go to bed. Choosing to be an army girlfriend has never been a mistake to me. God has truly blessed me with a wonderful and brave man, and I cannot wait for him to come home to me.
Jessica
