A Canadian Military Love Story: Ariel & DH

Today I’m really excited to share with you another military love story, except this time around we have our first Canadian military love story! Awesome! Thanks so much Ariel for sharing your story!

DH and I met at the Royal Military College of Canada in the new year of 2012. He was a strapping young cadet, and I was a hot young grad student taking the War Studies program by storm.  Because there were not many grad students my age, I had asked a professor I was doing research work for, if I could sit in on a Monday morning U.S. foreign policy course he taught – my favorite topic in school – and in which DH was a student. When we first laid eyes on each other he gave me a very greasy once over before plopping down in a seat in front of me. He proceeded to ignore me for the next month and in return I did not pay him too much attention either. I mean, who was this cadet to completely ignore me?! How rude! Instead I talked up everyone around him and that was that.

I ran into DH around campus a couple of times and would ask for help with directions – as I was often lost – and he was never able to be of use to me.  It was not until a friend request on Facebook that he started showing even the slightest interest in me. Insert awkward Facebook flirting. I gave him my number and told him to text me if he ever wanted to grab a drink. A week later I got this gem of a text “what’s cracking?” and the rest is history!

Because he only had 100 days left before he graduated and went off to complete his phase training, we decided to keep things casual in case we got too attached. 50 days later I asked him what “this” all meant. We had spent every night together, he had a key to my place and knew how to feed my cat. It was a bit too late to turn back, and we started talking about living together once he finished his training. Those 100 days ended with graduation, a commissioning parade, and the annual cadet graduation ball and the next day he headed off for training with a very teary goodbye.

After a very long summer apart I moved to Gagetown, New Brunswick to join him. He was going to be posted there for a year awaiting another course, and we didn’t want to be long distance for that time.  Have you ever driven 15 hours in a 2003 Dodge minivan with a cat and a U-haul trailer across three provinces in the August heat? Well I have! Our car broke down the second we rolled into the driveway that evening. Needless to say we ordered-in for dinner and spent the next couple of weeks settling-in while I looked for work. Within weeks we got a puppy, and then on my birthday he proposed! (Logical progression, right?) Within 48 hours of proposing he left for a month to go half way across the country with work. Because we wanted to be married within a year (and not do the unnecessarily long engagement) I knew that we needed to have many of our major decisions nailed-down within weeks.  While DH spent out first Thanksgiving away, I still managed to throw a dinner for twelve in our tiny basement apartment, drive across the country to give two conference presentations with a puppy who got exploding diarrhea in a hotel, deal with a hurricane and associated flooding, and plan a wedding – all before Halloween!

By the time he got back I had been baptized by fire into the life of a military spouse and have not looked back since.

Shortly into the New Year the military told us that DH would be starting his final training course in February, so we did what many in the military do and got legally married. We could not afford to pay rent at our apartment and for his rations and quarters, so we did ourselves a favor and legally became husband and wife. We were now exempt from paying for two dwellings, and we had saved ourselves the hassle of doing the legal bit at our upcoming nuptials.

Before our big wedding, DH finished phase training, I graduated from my master’s degree program and I moved us to Quebec while DH went on another course. Our big wedding was held on August 24^th 2013 in Toronto, Ontario surrounded by family and friends in a very intimate setting.

We’ve been in Quebec since 2013 and are eagerly awaiting our next military adventure! DH has spent many more birthdays, anniversaries, special occasions and holidays away since our first thanksgiving. On average, he has been away for six and a half months a year since we met, so we’ve spent about half of our married life apart.

As with all strong military relationships, I keep our life together but he’s the glue that holds me together. I’m a better person for knowing and loving my husband, and I would not have it any other way!