Love Week: Patricia - 'My First Love Story'

Today is our 10th day of Love Week and with just one more day to go I am excited to have Patricia guest posting today from Kisses & Croissants.  As a newlywed, who better to write about love and marriage than this beautiful expat living in France.  I follow a huge amount of expat and travel bloggers and her blog is one of them. What I love about it is the way that Patricia writes because she does not limit herself to just posts about living the expat life.  She writes posts that are engaging, funny, and carefree and writes honestly from her heart.  It would be hard to visit her blog for the first time and not stay a long while.  But what I appreciate and love must about her is how friendly and sweet she is as a person.  I have said it before, but I really did not use twitter that much before February.  Being able to engage with Patricia through that social media and through our conversations on her comments has really changed the way I view blogging and for the better.  After ten years of marriage I love hearing about how couples meet and Patricia's love story is so romantic in my eyes.  I have been looking forward to her guest post today to share it with you all.  Thank you so much Patricia for not just guest posting but for being my friend among the expats of this world.  

Hey A Compass Rose fans! I'm Patricia and Kisses & Croissants is my little corner of the internet. Bonnie is super awesome (you already knew that of course), and has asked me to guest post for her while she's off having an amazing week of marriage celebration. Keeping in line with the romantic theme, I wanted to share my first love story with you today. Please excuse the corniness. I'm just kind of sappy like that! :)

At 19, I was young, curious, and just itching for adventure. A year long study abroad program in France seemed glamorous and thrilling. So I stuffed everything I could into one little suitcase and bought a plane ticket. A few months later, completely excited, jet lagged, and a little naive, I showed up in a city that I'd never visited before, not knowing any one or even if I'd be able to find my apartment in the morning. I barely spoke the language.

It wasn't long before a sweet lady from church decided to "adopt" me for the school year. I fell in love with her son the first day we met. I know how cheesy that sounds, but that's really what happened. He was tall, dark, handsome, and barely spoke English. At the time we could only see each other on weekends, when his mom invited me to Sunday dinners. He lived three hours away from us in the south of France. At the time I thought that was tough, but he quickly became my world, my first real love.

That school year passed quickly and the end of summer came. I had to go back to my home university to finish my senior year, because throwing away my education for a boy that I'd known for less than a year was out of the question. He promised wait for me, but when he dropped me off at the airport I couldn't stop from self from crying. I remember being slightly embarrassed to be sobbing in front of so many strangers while he held me in front of Geneva airport's Burger King. So not glamorous.

I'm not going to tell you that living oceans apart was easy, because we were so in love. People who tell you that are lying. Long distance relationships suck. I'm also not going to tell you it was the hardest thing I'd ever done. He was still my best friend, my closest confidant, and always just a phone call away. I had a lot to be grateful for.

We only saw each other in person once during that nine month separation, one week right around New Year's. He was supposed to come to Nevada to meet my family, but he broke his ankle the week before and the doctor told him that he couldn't travel. I hopped on a plane as soon as I heard and went to go see him.

Just so you know, happy endings do exist :) . After graduation I dropped everything, bought a plane ticket back to France, and married that boy. We still appreciate every day that we get to spend together, because we spent so many days just wishing that we could. 

You can read about what we're up to now and what's it like being an American in France by clicking here. 

Please stop by and say hi! :)