I wanted to give you a sneak peak into a part of a little love story. The love story is about my daughter Anika and her boyfriend Erik.
Anika and Erik met when she was a freshman and he was a senior. At first she thought he was nothing special, really, she thought he was kinda goofy. She met him at a local grocery store where he bagged groceries. I was purchasing a little bear for her with the name of her new high school on it. She was telling the cashier she was a new student in town and they spoke how awful the football team was and in came Erik's opinion about the "best cross country team ever"! He does not recall this meeting at all, but that is how they met......she was not impressed!
Of course things change. She joined that cross country team and he wormed his way into her heart. In fact he touched her hand while she was dating another fella! She was just fourteen, he was 17 and that was a big red flag!!! Needless to say, Dad wasn't happy.
Well let's just say it took some convincing, but they were allowed to "date" under some pretty strict guidelines. Chaperoned and under constant surveillance from teachers and well meaning friends. She wasn't allowed to car date, be alone etc and so on and this silly boy agreed to all of it!
He was head over heals and towed the line on every rule. She loved the attention of the mature guy and they got very close.
Well it got rocky, very rocky on occasions....they found ways to make it work. In my living room.....talking and talking and talking. His parents are pretty great too and although it's not always easy, I think we all want what is best for these two.
Longs story short (is it to late?) He had planned to go into the Marines before she had even come along. The closer it got to him leaving the harder it got for him to leave. There was talk of him not leaving, but only very briefly because this was his big dream.
We as parents thought it might be better for them to just break up....but they would not hear of it!
Now he is 18 and she is 15 and it is almost a year that they have been together. They have been apart for 3 months with only letters between them.
In a very few days......he will be coming home.
So I thought I would share this video.
She was too young to go to the prom, so I made a prom in my back yard for the two of them to share some private time before he left for boot camp. A professional photographer came and snapped some awesome pics and I made them into a video.
The last pics are of when they first started dating and then when he was realizing time was short and he was having to start saying goodbye to her.
I hope you can understand young love again and how tough it was for the both of them.
Remember that the boys and girls who go off to boot camp leave behind boys and girls to become Men and Women to serve are country and there are so many sacrifices both large and small.
