I was born in Memphis, TN and moved to Southaven, MS when I was 4 years old. This is where I would continue to live and spend my life until my 25th year. In 2011 I had already graduated college- University of Memphis, Go Tigers!!- and had began my first post-grad job. I was starting to get my finances settled and figure out my next move in "growing up". In the process of all of this, I was definitely ready for a nice vacation and finally decided to make the journey up to North Carolina to visit one of my good friends that lived in Concord, and also my cousin, his wife, and aunt who lived about an hour away. I planned out my schedule to split the week between the two and booked my round trip ticket to Charlotte, NC. I landed on Friday, February 18, 2011 having no idea how much this trip was going to change my life. Trisha picked me up from the airport and we had a fun, girls night out catching up on the past 4 1/2 years that we had not seen each other. Saturday we got up to go do some shopping and she said how they had planned a little get together cookout with some of her and her boyfriend's, Alex, friends and her family to have over. As the guests started to arrive, I was introduced to everyone and spent the first half of the evening catching up with her family who I had already known for a few years. As the night went on, I started talking to one of Alex's friends and band mates, Lance. We just casually chit-chatted about where I was from and just basic things. As the night went on I realized he seemed to be following me around more and more (hehe) and striking up more and more conversation. We ended up hanging out and talking most of the evening until the party winded down and everyone went home. The next day, Sunday, Lance invited Alex, Trisha, and myself over to have dinner. Of course we all had a great time hanging out and for Lance and I, getting to know each other even more. The next day I was due to head on over to spend the next 4 days with my family. I had a wonderful time, but SOMEONE was constantly on my mind. I was due to come back to Concord Thursday night, and only had Friday left as a full day before my flight home Saturday. Friday night I already had plans with Trisha and Alex to go have sushi and I had casually mentioned they could invite Lance. So here we are again, us four all hanging out having a good time. Trisha and I had girl time watching movies while the boys played silly video games in the guest room. As the night dwindled down we all said our goodbyes and headed to bed, as I had an early flight the next morning. I had no idea what was to come, but I figured I would probably never see or hear from my little NC crush again, as we didn't exchange phone numbers or any contact information.
Fast forward 2 weeks after I am home.. I am sitting at work when my phone beeps a facebook alert: Lance Rowland had requested to be your friend. Hmmmm :) Of course I accept right away and wait for some sort of communication. Nothing. haha- So 2 days later I send him a message saying it was nice to meet him and I had a great trip.. well that turned into us messaging back and forth constantly over the next few weeks and a casual invite for me to come back and visit sometime soon. Long story short, I ended up going back April 15-17 and that was the beginnng of it all. We talked/texted/skyped/emailed (thank god for technology these days) 24/7. We flew back and forth every 2-3 weeks breaking our bank accounts to see each other as much as possible. It was a long few months of long distance, but I wouldn't have it any other way. It was such an exciting, crazy, fun, stressful, sad, and wonderful experience all rolled into one. Finally we just couldn't take the distance any longer. I had always thought it would be neat move away somewhere completely different and build my own life, and now I finally had that push.
So October 2011, just 8 months after meeting, I quit my job, left all my friends, family, dogs, and the only life I had ever known to pack up my little Nissan Sentra and move myself 11 hours away to begin my new life.
Sometimes we look back on our journey and think, we were nuts- that was so fast! But for us, it just worked.
We were married October 27, 2012, welcomed our daughter, Tilly, on June 21, 2014 and son, Ivor, on February 26, 2017. I hope you enjoy reading our journey as much as I enjoy living it. :)
The Rowlands
September 2017
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