Caiti's Crossing

Throughout our childhood and younger years most of us are taught about how we can protect ourselves from harm. Don’t touch the flame, you’ll be burned. Don’t run with that knife or those scissors. They’re very sharp and you could be cut.

This goes on our whole lives from anyone who has raised us or has watched over us and we learned these things. So we go into life on our own after we become a certain age. We graduate high school, we go into the workforce or college or both.

We stay up late studying or worrying or we work late and then we catch a cold and get sick and feel miserable. But we take care of ourselves because we’re taught to and we want to feel better.

Then one day another human starts to worry about you getting hurt or sick. When you stub your toe they laugh but quickly try to comfort you; when you’re sneezing and your nose is runny and your eyes are itchy and watery and everyone steps aside when you walk by because they don’t want what you have, this human will stop by the drugstore after work and purchase medication for you to make you feel better.

I have been lucky enough to meet the man for me at such a young age. I’m just 21 (and a half) and I’ve met and fallen head over heels for the person that I’ll spend the rest of my life loving, learning from, and irritating on a daily basis.

But so many experiences come with finding yourself settling into life at a young age. Many people criticize young love and young marriage. I scoff at those people despite their reasons for feeling that way. I see it as the opportunity to spend many more happy years than some couples get. I’d rather meet my soulmate at 19 than at 29.

As I said though, many different kinds of experiences come from being in this position. An incident occurred last night that brought this to my attention.

Every Thursday night unless a natural disaster has occurred or is occurring, Mychal and I have a date night. It is our time during the work/school week to let things melt away, when we go somewhere for dinner to talk and unwind, then play games, go shopping, see a movie, or cuddle up in his car and watch something on Netflix.

Yesterday evening we met on campus after work and I got into his car to go to dinner. After our evening together, he brought me back to my vehicle where we wound up getting caught up in conversation. My back was toward the passenger window and he was completely at ease in the driver’s seat when suddenly he lurched forward and reached for the gear shift to throw his car into reverse.

A man had appeared from around the side of my vehicle (which was parked directly across from Mychal’s car). This put him about 15-20 feet from us with his arm raised and carrying a dark object in his raised hand as he quickly approached the car.

Mychal, upon first glance, felt threatened as it appeared the man was approaching us carrying a gun.

As it turned out, the man was carrying a cell phone in a bulky case and wanted directions to a bus stop at 11PM so he felt it was logical to flail about in the dark while approaching the only vehicles in a dark parking lot.

But Mychal’s reaction stayed on my mind. He is always protecting me. He was protecting me then. He protected me when I was afoot in downtown Shreveport at 10PM with a dying phone because I had parked my vehicle in a dark unmarked alley and lost track of where it was.

I was lost, completely turned around and confused. But he was with me and he watched over me so I could focus on trying to remember where I had parked.

These are just two examples, but when I really consider our entire relationship I realize that he has been protecting me for so long, in oh so many ways and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to tell him how much it means to me that he is so selfless and considerate.

Before him, I never had someone who would do everything in their power to keep me safe; and not just safe, but happy.

He has made me feel like I truly belong somewhere, and that somewhere is with him. Whether I’m playing with his hair, stealing his glasses, or kissing his face when he’s watching a movie, that’s where I’m supposed to be.

From time to time when I’m not with him I try to imagine doing things in my life as if I had never met him. I think about him constantly but could I walk through Brookshire’s and see a box of Triscuits without smiling? No. But I wouldn’t want to.

I suppose that if things ended now, I could live without him…but without him I’d be miserable at best. ❤