You would think at the age of 22 I could figure out to do with the rest of my life...WRONG! I did things a bit backwards...I feel head-over-heels in love with a close friend my junior year of high school we started dating May 19, 2004…we have been at each others side ever since, no one could ever love me like TJ does! He is the smartest and most kind man I know and I can not imagine my life with out him. We graduated Brookwood HS May 13, 2005…We both went to college for a year but decided we were just wasting money with not knowing what we really wanted to do...I decided I'd rather be independent and live on my own than paying on student loans for the rest of my life...I worked at 2 drug stores and decided I didn’t want to work retail forever, tried doing outside sales for a few months...hated that, got an apartment and started working at a hotel…crappy pay and not so great hours only lasted about a year and a half…somewhere during that time I bought a house and a few months later got married in a very original, stress free back-yard ceremony at our house Sept. 28, 2007...In June of 2008 I was fed up with the hotel and got a job as an administrative assistant/secretary at a small company called AirTech, Inc. in Birmingham…I absolutely love it...I like most of the people I work with and it is very laid back…a perfect fit for me! Since we have been married TJ worked for a while at a company where he did x-rays, shots and blood work, hearing test, things like that but he had to travel for weeks at a time and work 16 hours a day for weeks with out hardly any sleep... we loved the overtime pay and experience, but hated the job and his boss...His dad helped him get a job working at a steel mill threading pipe place …he was good at it, but after just a week or so he come home and said that it was sad watching people at the mill that were only in their 40s because they were making hardly no money and all had arthritis or a bad back or something….he came home that day and said that day that we needed to get serious about our future.
We started talking about the USAF in September 2008 and decided that TJ joining the service will not only be a great opportunity for our future children but also a great way to see the world and both finish school...He is a military brat so he knew way more than me going in. We had a wonderful recruiter and did lots of research before making the final decision. It would be a cut in pay for TJ but so much worth it in the future.
The hardest part for me is the thought of leaving my family and friends behind and moving away from the beautiful state of Alabama. I tend to be in the middle of everything in my family and love spending time with all of my family, especially my Mom who is so much more than a mom to be. We are each other’s best friend and we both know me leaving home will be hard, but we are both strong and together we can make it through anything. The thought of leaving my best friend Cortney behind makes me completely heart-broken. We have been friends since I was in the 9th grade and we have a bond like no other. I can not begin to tell you what an amazing person Cortney is, I love her with all of my heart. I instantly became part of her wonderful family and love them all; they have been there for me through so much. There has not been a time since I have known her that she has not supported me whole-heartedly or been there for me 100%. I will miss her but I hear that absence makes the heart grow fonder and I know that being apart will do nothing but make our bond stronger. I also have an extremely close relationship with my little cousin Dominique, in her short 14 year old life she has been through more than most adults, we are more like sisters than anything and I think it will be harder on her for us to leave than anyone else..
TJ and I both have the most amazing friends and family in the world! That of course meaning that leaving will make it that much harder but people that truly love us understand that our future should come first!
We made the decision late 2008 for TJ to join the United States Air Force as active duty and he signed a 6 year contract. On Valentine’s Day 2009 we got the call that he would head for Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas for 8.5 weeks for BMT (Basic Military Training) May 5, 2009. That is when our offical Air Force journey began!
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