Our story: dealing with a deployment

Mac and I had been dating for about a year, and my college graduation was on the horizon. As I prepared to graduate from college, I began exploring my options. Should I go to graduate school or get a job? Where? Mac and I discussed what we should do. Above all, we wanted to be together. Mac was moving to Fort Bragg after he completed his officer courses in Oklahoma. North Carolina offered graduate school and potential job opportunities, so I decided to move there, too. We didn’t imagine that we would be dealing with a deployment within a few months.

I managed to snag a job interview the week of graduation, and Mac flew to Virginia for my graduation. A week or so later, I had a job offer in hand. After helping Mac move from Oklahoma to North Carolina, I returned to Pennsylvania, packed up my Jeep, and moved to North Carolina. We had a few whirlwind weeks, but it all worked out.

The deployment

In July, Mac found out that he would be deploying in December. That news honestly blindsided me. We would be dealing with a deployment months after we moved in together. I settled in to a new job, Mac spent weeks out training in the field, and we tried to make the most of our remaining time. We only had a few months before we would spend a year 7000 miles apart.

But, a nagging started in my mind. Where was our relationship going? Were we going to get married? I might’ve had a meltdown (a la Miss Archer) at a friend’s house where I basically told Mac he had to propose because I moved to North Carolina to be with him. Not my proudest moment. He told me that he had started looking at rings. The next morning came with a hangover and regret. We really didn’t talk about getting engaged again.

Thanksgiving came, and our families gathered at our house. Apparently, our parents and siblings expected an announcement (which neither of us did). I then resigned myself (in dramatic and unnecessary fashion) to Mac deploying before he proposed.