omg.it's.brittany married;happily-moneymaker;u.s.army-loves;photography-music-movies-family-friends <3

The above two time frames signify two very important dates in my life.

August 11, 2010.
November 24, 2010.

The day I entered the Army, and the day I married my best friend <3

It’s been a crazy amazing adventure that I will never forget. The day before I left for Basic Training I spent the night with my best friend; Rich. The relationship we had known for a year and four months was coming to an end. We had a very complicated relationship. I was in Love with him, but he was not interested to the same extent; or so he thought (; So I basically joined to get away from him and move on with my life. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. The whole night I kept thinking about how I would never see him again. It was freeing, but very heartbreaking at the same time.

The morning I left he came to breakfast with my mom, brother, step-dad and I, and then I dropped him off by myself. As we hugged I fought back the tears, as I walked away I refused to look back, but when I drove away I watched him and saw the hurt in his eyes.. I couldn’t fight the tears anymore.

Basic was the easiest time of my life. The most difficult part, for me, was the female’s I had to share a bay with.. But I don’t want to get into that. This is about my Love, mainly. I certainly missed my family, but it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I finally let go of Rich, but I still wrote him every single night, and called him when I could. Thinking of him kept me sane during Basic, and drove me forward. It wasn’t until it was almost graduation that he complicated things. I had finally put ‘us’ in the past when we had to quickly get off the phone.. and he said; I Love You. I said it fast as I hung up the phone. More tears I had to fight back as the Drill Sergeant’s gave us their lecture. When we were finally released back to our bay I cried my eyes out wondering why now. It was apparent to me that he would always be a part of me, and I would never be able to let that go. So the next time we spoke I asked him to come to my graduation. He agreed.

As the days came closer, I grew more excited. I had so many people come to my graduation; My mom, dad, brother, sister Makaylah, sister TeNisha, step-mom, nephew Silas, aunt Tina, and Rich. Although I had all that love ready to greet and congratulate me all I could think about was the one I fell in love with a year prior. I couldn’t wait to see him again.

Family Day finally came, and we stood in formation. I didn’t hear anything the announcer was saying; Not until he said, “Families, go get your soldier.” I stood there searching the crowd as the piled onto the field from the stands. And I finally saw him. My breath caught in my throat, he was more beautiful than I remembered. I hugged my family first, I’ll explain that in a minute.. And then I got to Rich. I wanted to stay in his arms forever, but I had to keep it short.

So, my dad is not the most understanding man on the planet. As a matter of fact when I was younger I ‘dated’ a black kid, and was grounded for a year. My dad knew I had a close friendship with Rich, but that was the extent of it as far as he was concerned. But on Family Day I guess he sort of sensed more because he pulled me aside. He told me that I was grown now, and should have the lady balls to tell him the truth. I explained to him that it wasn’t like that between us- unfortunately. If it ever became, he would be the first to know.

I spent Family Day wishing I could kiss him, hug him, just being close to him without glares from my family. But I kept it as far from my conscious mind as possible and just enjoyed my semi-freedom with my boasting family.

It was now time to go back to the Army. After they dropped me off we had an almost hour long formation, and I felt my phone vibrate at 2002, right when we started. I couldn’t wait to get out to check it! We had gone all Basic without our phones, so texts made me happy haha.

After formation I ran up to the bay to check my phone. It was from Rich, and held the words I longed to hear for so long— “I wanna be your man.” Happiness spread through my entire body, it was the greatest feeling I’ve ever felt. I called him immediately, and we talked for a few minutes until I had to get in bed ready for Graduation the next day.

Graduation went well, and when I finished we grabbed all of my things and hit the road. We stopped at a waffle house which is where I told my dad about Rich and I. This is where he said, and I quote;

“Well, I accepted your brother being gay- I can accept this too.”

I thought that was a funny way of putting it, but at least he didn’t ruin the good day.

From there we went to Virginia to drop off my *boyfriend*, mom, and aunt Tina (who would drive back to NY on her own). It was very saddening to leave Rich in VA when I was heading to MD to start my AIT, but I knew that I would see him again (:

I only had to spend about a month away from him (: In early November he came to MD, and we got married. It was more of a necessity than romantic planning, but we had already discussed marriage (in the far future) so it wasn’t like we were doing it just because we needed to. The suddenness did, however, create some tension; But they always say the first year of marriage is the hardest.

Getting married also landed me in the 1SG office for an Article 15. At the time I was a Phase IV (Cannot leave post.. along with some other rules, but that’s the one that applies here), it was a weekday, and I was in class. I didn’t want to do it the way I did, but we had no choice. Rich was living in a hotel, and they get expensive! My PLT SGT wouldn’t help, so I took matters into my own hand. I signed out of the company for sick call that morning. On the way to the school to sign in I slipped away and took off my uniform behind a dumpster, underneath were my civilian clothes. I made my way (quickly) to the PX where a pre-arranged taxi waited for me. We got married at the courthouse around 10am, and proceeded to have lunch at a little Italian place (: When I returned to the Company, no one knew I had even gone. And to top it off the next morning I got phase V so I could enjoy my Thanksgiving weekend!

I could have completely gotten away with it if I hadn’t needed to turn in my Marriage Certificate to get my new Husband into DEERS and get BAH/BAS. I was hoping my PLT SGT would just sign the papers, and call it good. Of course, life is not that easy, he looked it over, and realized the time and date conflict. I got bumped back to Phase IV, and he sent the request for my Article 15 up. 

Luckily, my Christmas didn’t get taken from me. Although I was unable to see my husband again until December 15, it was well worth the wait. We took a bus down to Virginia to see our family, and spent past New Years there. It was wonderful! When we returned we had exactly one night left before I had to get back to Student Company, and from there I didn’t know when the next time we would see each other again due to my Phase status. But, God was on our side (: After returning to StuCo, SFC Mosley re-issued my Phase V. I think we got one weekend before I got my Article 15, which entailed two weeks of extra duty and restriction.

After that, however, we spent every weekend together (: It was very stressful though, because it took forever to get into a house on post. We finally did on February 2nd, but I was unable to move in until we got a car so that I could have a means of transportation. I was able to move in right after the 15th of February, because we got ourselves a little Chevrolet Aveo.

I would love to say that things got easy from there out, but as the saying goes; and I found to be very true- The first year of marriage is the hardest.

I worked my ass off at DINFO’s though, and I graduated both of my classes without having to re-do anything. And we finally got orders to Fort Bragg, NC. Not to mention we gained an addition to our little family; Daisy- a pit/boxer mix that has been in my family since August of 2007.

Rich had to stay behind in MD until August to take care of some things, so from June 20th until August 5th I found my way around Fayetteville and Fort Bragg preparing for when I could be re-united with my husband.

Things were definitely different when he came home to me- a very good different. It would seem that we really needed that time apart to really reconnect. Not to mention I was able to focus on my career and get a handle at my unit before he came home. I think that made things easier as well.

We found our little family a nice little three bedroom two bathroom home only 15 minutes from post- where we still live today; September 1st.

I left for Airborne school the beginning of November. It was something I had been looking forward to for quite a few months, but it also interfered with us spending our first anniversary together. The way we saw it though, we have countless more to follow (: I graduated Airborne School Dec 2nd, and it was an amazing feeling! Jumping out of planes was not an easy task for me, I’m petrified of heights. Not to mention when my mom went sky diving back in the day I swore up and down I would never jump out of a plane!

That was the last ‘milestone’ thus far. I don’t know what the future holds, not really. But I do know that during my contract I will do all I can to be all that I can. As far as my husband and I are concerned, every day is a new day- and we have so many to look forward to (: He is the Love of my Life, and even though we have our problems, we also strive for solutions. We make a wonderful team, and I can’t imagine my life without the blessing the Lord has sent for me <3