What follows is a recollection of a few recent events with Kaity. Read, or don’t:

April 8-10: Kaity’s parents are in town. We go to fancy restaurants for her birthday, seaquariums for family time, and libraries for down time. Nervous is less than the word that describes how I am, but with time her parents and I warm up to each other.

At the seaquarium, her dad sits me down and told me that he’s so thrilled that Kaity is with me. All he cares is that his princess is smiling, and I make her beam.

April 21-24: Kaity comes home with me for Easter weekend. There, we go to the beach and feel redemption, see a helicopter drop 50,000 pieces of candy into a soccer field, eat birthday cake, and do yardwork cheerfully.  

Kaity is terrified to make a mistake in front of my parents, but I insist that the act of simply being yourself is all that’s necessary. I really think my dad did a great job of letting her feel welcome.

April 30: Possibly my favorite day with Kaity from the last (nearly) eight months. We sleep in, eat lunch happily, watch two episodes of The Office, and listen to Wide Eyes by Local Natives on repeat. Then, we eat dinner with great friends whom we will miss, find out heart-wrenching news from a friend back home, drive unprompted to a Solia Tera concert, and end the night with responsible, loving choices.

Today felt more like home than Lake Worth does.

I love that with her, life only gets better. However long ago, Kaity was the girl from Speech class that I sat down with at lunch. Now, she is the girlfriend I am privileged to love. I love her, I do. To this point, I have been elated to live alongside her, and I don’t plan to stop anytime soon.