We've Come a Long Way, Baby!
I suppose we could have never met, never crossed paths, never rolled right into love, but, for real though, what kind of story would that make? A boring one. Brady and I are lots of things. But we are not boring. We live by the words of the philosopher Atticus, "I hope to arrive to my death, late, in love, and a little drunk." Yes, turns out Atticus is pretty much our spirit animal. I digress... Brady and I both attended Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, and met through mutual friends. We ran into each other every now and then, and we would exchange quick greetings, and laugh about the stories that our friends told when we all got together, but that was about it. I wish I could tell you that it was love at first sight, and that there were hearts shooting out of our eyes whenever our paths crossed, but that wasn't the case. In fact, I wasn't impressed with Brady, and found myself excessively rolling my eyes whenever his name was mentioned. I went home with a friend to Cincinnati for Thanksgiving 2000. To be honest, I didn't even really know where Cincinnati was, and it’s spelling confused me. However, it sounded sort of exotic, so I was excited.
During my visit, Brady appeared on the scene. While I still didn't fall in love with him, I did fall in love with two things on this trip: LaRosa's pizza & Brady's yellow Cadillac, AKA "Buttercup"- RIP "Buttercup". The years passed, and somehow, Brady and I kept in touch. Through phone calls, texts, and later through the magic of social media, we stayed connected. It wasn't until 2013 though, that we started communicating regularly, and as it turns out, the communication never stopped. Years ago, I remember telling my mom, "I've never met a guy who I could stand for more than five minutes. If I find one, I'll marry him." It took Brady and I awhile to come to terms with marriage. We avoided the topic for some time, eventually swearing off the idea completely. Honestly, we just wanted to have fun, and enjoy each other's company. After all, I was a girl with Cerebral Palsy, who crossed over to the dark side in connecting with someone with Spina Bifida. When we first started dating, we endured some criticism about dating outside of our disabilities- "Why do you have to take one of our most eligible men, Meg? Can't you just date one of your own people?" Wait, I'm confused. You mean someone as awesome, confident and adventurous as me? Check! We pretty much just decided we couldn't live without each other one day, and the rest is history. Brady and I will finally be married on May 5, 2018, and we couldn't be more excited. I often ask him how "this" all happened, with him replying, "It just did." He's definitely a man of few words, but it's true, it just did. Maybe we don't have an epic love story to share, but all that matters is that "this" happened for us both, and so we'll move forward together.
