If I knew then what I know now...

I would have never believed it.

11 years ago I acted on what would become the craziest and most life-changing decision I would ever make (to date). I had just graduated from the University of Georgia and was offered a job working full-time at the camp I had worked at the previous 2 summers. It sounds like a no-brainer decision to make since it was the only paying job I had been offered post-grad.

However, there was one catch.

The ole ex-boyfriend.

Gah. They always get in the way.

He just so happened to have graduated a wee bit before me (something about studying when he was supposed to and passing required classes. Dang overachiever) and he too got a full time job offer on the same little island that beckoned me.

So he was established there. A good 6 months before me. And thus begets my quandary.

Paying job/free place to live/5 minutes from beach/office overlooking marsh & river/won't have to mooch off parents VERSUS ex-boyfriend lives one street over and it's a very very very small island.

So I packed up and headed south of course.

I arrived on January 3rd, my boss' 36th birthday. His family (who was also housing me) had a little dinner party that night to celebrate. I remember his mom getting a little sentimental towards her boy and I removed myself to the dining room (aka, my bedroom) to have a good cry. Having just moved away from home for what classified as "forever" to get my big girl job made me quite a bit weepy. Clearly I've made a terrible decision. Surely I can tuck my tail between my legs and drive back home. Certainly I was out of my mind to move one street away from a seriously bad breakup.

Yet I stayed.

And the job was the best job I've ever had.

The ex won me over and dropped to his knee 2 years later with a fatty diamond. (Well, really, he didn't drop to his knee because he was all cozified on a blanket on the beach but since boys are supposed to take a knee and I'm a rule follower, I've changed the details in my mind to fit accordingly).

We enjoyed marriage for about a minute and a half before we added....and added....and doubly added some sweet little blessings we like to call "our hoodlums".

Now, had you told me all of this 11 years ago, I would have laughed in your face. Much as I did my college roomies when they proclaimed to me, "You do know that when you go work down there you are SO going to date Carter." Hahahahaha, they were so funny! I told them I was 100% confident of one thing only: I would NEVER date that boy.

Nope. Never. No how.

And I didn't.

I just married him.

Booyah, roomies.