A Year In Review

Nearly one year ago, Errol and I embarked on a big step in our relationship: moving in together. We knew it would be temporary, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't imagine the day when we would have to finally have to be apart. 

On July 23, 2011, a Chrysler Sebring, a Nissan Sentra S-ER, and a Lexus RX300 traveled from Gainesville, FL to Chapel Hill, NC. My family came to help move us in and get settled. Each of our cars was filled to the rim, with none of us having visual from the rearview mirrors. It was the first (and only, I hope) time where I had to make that drive all by myself. 

The apartment was a small, one bed/one bath apartment on the second floor. The first month wiped out my savings, where I had to buy things for the living room, bedroom, and apartment. We didn't split costs because I would be keeping all of it once Errol moved. Slowly but surely we purchased items off Craigslist to make the apartment a home. 

School started for me, and it became very difficult for me to find a balance with high-volume coursework, meeting new people, being as involved as possible in school opportunities, and of course, being a girlfriend. At the same time I was starting school, Errol was working on medical school applications, job applications, and dealing with overall stress and loneliness of being with a busy girlfriend.

Errol began working at CVS, at the same store as me, as a full-time pharmacy technician. There, he began to have something to fill his time, and a place to make friends. Luckily, the other technicians are generally around our same age.

The year went on, and the days remained the same. I studied, went to meetings, volunteered in the community. He worked, worked, and worked. Our scheduled rarely matched and most days I would be up at 7AM and not see him until 9PM or later. But we tried our hardest to do things together, like cook special meals, eat at nice restaurants, and explore other places.

Errol quit CVS at the end of May, and I finished my introductory hospital rotation then too. That left all of June for Errol to say goodbye to North Carolina, and to everyone else.

The final week of June was jam-packed with moving. Moved from our old place to my new place, then Errol down to Orlando. I was able to put that into one sentence, but I can’t think of anything that will really capture the magnitude of labor that occurred there. And we made the most of every free moment, checking one thing after another off of our bucket lists.  

 Now the countdown begins for July 20 when we will be reunited once more. 

Saying goodbye at the airport