happy nola-versary

Today is my two year anniversary with New Orleans, and what a fantastic two years it has been. I think about how much has happened and changed over the past 24 months, and about the person I was when I moved here: fresh out of college, knowing nobody, and completely unaware of the possibilities waiting for me in this city. Looking back now, I can't believe it has only been two years. I feel like I've already spent a small lifetime here, full of happiness, adventure, and discovery...which is a promising sign of things to come. I love you, New Orleans. Happy Anniversary!

A few highlights:

A few days after moving here, I met Melissa. She and I both went to TCU and had loads of mutual friends...yet never became friends ourselves (we think we may have met once or twice?) Thankfully, she had the courage to email me (pretty much a perfect stranger) when she heard from one of said mutual friends that I was moving to New Orleans. It didn't take long for us to become the closest of friends, and we still wonder to this day why we never hung out in college. These days we live together, along with another dear friend, Jenn, and are almost inseparable. I don't know what I would have done without her! She also introduced me to this guy:

I met Corey almost a month after I'd moved to New Orleans, when Melissa invited me to go out with she and a few friends. I couldn't help but notice his sweet demeanor, wonderful smile, how handsome he was, and his fun personality. Within minutes of meeting, we were attached at the hip...talking, laughing, and dancing all night. We ended the night knowing that we had to see each other again, and we did...the very next day. And then the day after that, and the day after that, and so on and so forth. It was over the course of the next few days that we both realized we wanted to be a part of each others lives, and it only took a few weeks to get the feeling that this was going to turn into something B-I-G.

As much as we both talked about easing into things, taking the relationship slow, (and all those other cliched things people tell themselves when they realize how quickly they're falling for someone and can't really believe it's true and think that slowing things down...whatever that means...is the most "rational" decision) we couldn't help it. We knew we were supposed to be together, and trying to detour that fact was like trying to stop a freight train. We were understandably a little nervous, since we'd both recently come out of long relationships, but it was a risk we were willing to take. (I'd say it paid off pretty well, too!) I didn't expect to meet him, fall in love, and get engaged within two years, but that's the thing about life...when you're not expecting anything to happen, that's when something does happen. I think about what things would be like if I had never moved to New Orleans, and I can't imagine that I would be this happy, this content, and this blessed.

Through Corey and Melissa, I met some wonderful friends who have enriched my time here more than they'll ever know:

I've had two Carnival seasons as a local, caught countless shiny Mardi Gras beads, tailgated for Saints games at the Dome, watched pigs fly when the boys brought home the Lombardi Trophy (!!!), met the Unknown Who Dat, rode bikes, watched the sunset, and caught rays at The Fly, run around the French Quarter in a red tutu for Red Dress Run, visited plantations, boated the Tchefuncte River and Lake Pontchartrain, and probably consumed more than five times my body weight in crawfish.

I have to admit that I have been incredibly blessed over the past two years. I've met the love of my life, made some incredibly sweet friends who make my life so full and happy, and have been immersed and welcomed into the beautifully unique culture of New Orleans with open arms.