three hours south

the arkansas river
from a road trip in july that has since become more frequent

I think I wrote a post back in Smith & Emma's original glory days alluding to the fact that I would never do long distance dating unless it was absolutely necessary. Maybe I didn't. But I've definitely thought or even said it once or twice.

What is that saying about we plan and God laughs?

God is seriously getting a good chuckle now. And I'm eating my words. Never say never.

Because suddenly {not really that suddenly actually}, I've found myself in a long distance relationship. Gasp! Six months and some change later, I’m still wondering how I let my guard down long enough to let it happen. Yet so, so thankful I did.

But damn. This long distance thing is hard. Easily the single best and hardest thing I've ever done. Other than the fact that it wasn’t the ideal set up for a relationship, I really had no clue how long distance relationships worked. Sure, I’d dabbled in it during the summers in college—but the thing about summer is there’s always an end. Currently, there's no end in sight. That’s equal parts scary and frustrating for a control freak like me who just must know how her life is going to pan out. {Again, God laughs.}

I’m learning to go with the flow, which is admittedly hard for me and still a constant struggle. I'm slowly getting the hang of being happy in the present moment without worrying too much about the future. It is a daily battle--sometimes I'm too stubborn to realize I can be both happy and sad at the same time and sometimes I feel like the I am without a doubt the luckiest girl in the world. Luckily, I’ve found someone very, very patient.

Moral of this story... Never count anything out. Just when you least expect it, something great is waiting for you right where you'd least expect to find it--in my case, about three hours south.