People who have made me who I am today: Parte Una

This is Brian. I met Brian a few weeks after Dan and I broke up in the summer of '99. He was this gorgeous, rugged, Army guy, and I was this dorky girl, just slapping every label society had to offer on myself, trying to figure out who I might be. We had an odd start, Brian and I, but we bonded well. He's the "friend" I talked about that is getting married. Let me tell you, he was indeed a true friend. We had the best conversations. He's really as smart as they come, can't spell worth a damn, but incredibly intelligent. A born "people pessimist", his outlook and my heavy sarcasm fit hand in glove. On a personal note, he HAD just returned from Kosovo, so I'm sure that had much to do with his adapted personality traits at the time. But all of whatever "baggage" he had didn't matter to me. I fell hard, and I fell fast. He was exciting, and passionate. He read the same books I read. He liked the arts, and he was as much of the kind of a social animal as I was. We didn't have that heavy jealous aspect most sexualized relationships have, and it was good.

Brian let me be me, and I mean to the core. Beyond all the social norms and expectations. I liked spending my time, my money, and my thoughts on him. He was the first person to ever let me truly feel free. Then, the inevitable happened; he had to leave again. This time it was to Afghanistan, and it was for a year. I don't think I had cried in public since I was a little girl, but the day he left, I cried like a baby in my car all the way home. I remember just knowing it was more than just, "I'll see you soon". I just remember knowing something bad was going to happen.