The Best Year of My Life

The thought popped into my head the other day, that this year has been the best year of my life. Of all my thirty years, I’ve finally had it. 

It sounds so weird, that these past 12 months could possibly be the best 12 of my life, what with my body failing me for months, the world in ceaseless turmoil, the ever-tumultuous political landscape, the apparent crimes against humanity, the fires, the storms, and whatever other horrible things have happened since November 2020. But still, for me, I can’t help be feel that this past year has been my happiest. 

It started back on November 7th, 2020. I married the woman whom I can only describe as literally having been made for me. She’s perfect for me! Sweet and funny, but stubborn and willful; beautiful, but never believes me when I tell her. She’s proven time and time again to be everything that I need. She’s more similar to me than anyone else I’ve ever met and, yet somehow, so different from me that everyday, I learn a little more about her. She keeps me on my toes! 

Back to the story! The wedding was an extremely intimate (small), with a similarly small reception. We did our best to abide by regulations and tried to keep everyone as safe as possible. But , what our wedding lack in grandeur, it made up for in blissful love. 

We prompted went on a short honeymoon to a nearby beach town that we love. We went there with the expectation that everything was going to be closed to us, given that covid restrictions hadn’t been lifted in that town yet, but we figured we’d just relax in our room and watch movies, order take-out, and go for some walks. Which is ultimately what we did. The trip was filled with flaws and fraught with difficulties — almost all of our take-out orders were wrong, or just didn’t taste good, our reservation didn’t go as planned, and we even were hit with a parking ticket while trying to purchase a parking pass! It seemed like the world was bent on trying our marriage. What the world didn’t know was that it was going to have to try harder than that! 

We lovingly pressed on and enjoyed our honeymoon together, then went back home and prepared for the holiday seasons. Our first Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year together as a married couple. It was awesome. We spatchcocked a turkey, made all the sides, sang carols, and watched the New Years’ ball drop. Everything felt so wonderful, new, and magical to us. Not since we were kids had we felt quite as giddy. The lights seemed to have an extra twinkle in them, the cold was an excuse to cuddle closer, and the abundant overeating sent us on many more walks than we had planned. It was nothing short of amazing. And in that time, we realized something else. We wanted to bring another one into our home. We decided it was time. We were ready. 

So we got a dog. After months of back and fourth, it was finally time for us to get the dog of our dreams. We finally settled on a shiba inu. They are small enough to fit comfortably in our apartment and take with us to a new apartment when we decided to move, and they didn’t require too much exercise. Perfect! 

Finding one is what turned out to be the trial. We are both heavy believers in adoption rather than buying from a breeder, but leading up to this point, we couldn’t find any nearby to adopt. So we started looking for a breeder and after the right amount of too much research, we settled on one that was near one of our favorite vacation spots. Enter: Umi — our fur baby, our four-legged son. 

From the moment we first laid eyes on him, we knew he was perfect for us. He cutest little ball of fluff and and the sweetest version of a shibe imaginable (according to the breeder). We picked out a bunch of toys for him, discussed how we wanted to raised him and made our travel plans to pick him up as soon as possible. And just when we thought we couldn’t be in more in love with him, we picked up him and took him home. 

Within a couple weeks of having Umi with us, we got word back from a couple of the apartments we wanted to move into and both accepted us! We were overjoyed! Then once we settled down we realized we needed to make a tough decision: which one do we pick? We ultimately decided on moving into the newer apartment and we think we made the right decision. The location was perfect, the size was perfect, and our neighbors were quite (which was perfect!). The only downside was the actual moving process (we dislike moving more and more every time we do it). 

It was smooth sailing for us all the way up until late may. I decided to finally get vaccinated! I figured, I might as well get it over with and since everyone in my family did well with it, I probably would too. Plot twist, I didn’t! I must be one of the extreme few that didn’t have a decent enough reaction, and though sought medical help and reported what was happening to me, was left out in the dark — no answers, no help, no guidance. I ended up quitting my job because I couldn’t safely keep up with the work, but I also wasn’t able to get any additional leave approved from the doctors I’d seen. 

Thankfully, my wife is, again, the most amazing thing in the world. She encouraged me to quit and reminded me that we’d be fine without me working. So, I did. And it was the right decision. We were able to spend more time together, I was able to stay and make sure out puppy was getting all the attention he needed, and I was able to focus on recovering (or at least not getting worse). 

By September things were in full swing for us in our wedding planning, again. We decided to move forward with our large celebration. We were going back and forth with our vendors, working hard on our decorations and doing what we could to get everything ready before the wedding. And like all the best plans, things didn’t go accordingly. By the week of our wedding, our decorations weren’t completed and we didn’t even have our dance down! By the day of our rehearsal dinner, we didn’t even have our entire wedding party available, yet. 

Thankfully, we had the best wedding party, the best friends, and the best family we could imagine and everyone pulled together and went way far out of their way to help us finish everything off. It put us so far out of our element, relying on other people to help us with things, but they took almost all of the stress off of us. 

By the day of our wedding (read: vow renewal), everything except for our dance was ready. The day went smoothly, too smoothly. We were waiting for “the thing” that would happen that would throw a major wrench in our day. But as the night went on, the wrench, “the thing,” didn’t rear its ugly head. It never came. Everything went off without a hitch. After the dancing had ceased, again, our friends and family pulled together to help us  clean everything up. We left the venue that night feeling overwhelmed with blessings. On the drive home and while home, we talked about it, the bliss we felt and the love that surrounded us. The night was perfect for us.

We decided it was only appropriate to end our night (and the best year of my life, so far) the same way our entire relationship began: talking over coffee (thank you, Dutch Bros.).