We don't actually remember the first time we met, two year olds don't have the best memory. Through pictures and stories told however, we didn't seem to care much for each other. We weren't enemies or anything like that mind you, but we mostly kept to ourselves and only interacted here and there. Evidently we wouldn't change much from our two year old selves for what would end up being our entire childhoods. Five separate schools we went to together. We even shared the same bus the whole time! (we are neighbors after all). A regularly functioning person could assume, "well they must have talked since they already had so much in common" and I would tell that person that they must not have known us as kids very well. Shyness was a trait we both shared, among many other things. Eighteen years go past and we both follow our own paths through college and our careers beyond. One a teacher, one a cop (neither of us stayed in those jobs). Then, as fate would have it, we both came back home to once again be neighbors across the street. That's where the story really picks up. Loving dogs. Another commonality between us, and as the stars finally aligned to bring us together, the thing that kicked off a relationship that continues to this day. She reached out first to take them for walks, but I take credit for moving things to the next level. People can find love across the world, and for some their true love is in a land far away on the other side of the globe. Ours was across the street.