It's a tale as old as time... boy meets girl and they fall madly in love and run off and get married, after the boy relentlessly pursues the girl for about... 15 years.

Ben and I first met in college while we were both at the University of Arizona -- Bear Down! During that time we had a lot of the same friends and we would run into each other frequently at parties. We would always have a great time together - but there was a problem I was always in a relationship with someone else.

After college, I stayed in Tucson, Arizona and Ben moved back to Carlsbad, California. During this period Ben was always finding ways to get me to come out to visit. If Coachella or CRSSD festival were coming up you better believe that Ben had already bought tickets and was busy coordinating the whole event. I would come out to California and we would go to concerts and festivals and all the while I remained unaware that these were organized as a romantic advance. I would tell everyone that we were just friends and we had fun together, Ben isn't interested in dating me.

Eventually I decided it was time to leave Tucson, and I moved to Orange County, California. It was during this time that Ben and I briefly dated. However, we were both a young 29 and had a lot of growing to do. When things ended we both decided it was better not to speak and so there was no communication for the next 5 years.

In 2022, I decided it was time to move... AGAIN... lol. I moved to Mission Valley, San Diego. After a brief nesting phase and exploring downtown San Diego, I decided to reach out to Ben. I texted him from my new phone number and said casually, "Hi! It's Natalie, I moved to San Diego." Ben later told me that when he saw that text he looked down at his phone and has never jumped higher in the air in his life - comparable to Air Jordan. The next week we met for breakfast and went to a Padres baseball game. A few weeks later we went to the Red Hot Chili Peppers Concert at Petco Park. A month later we thought we better step up our game and took a two week trip to travel around Costa Rica. We had the time of our lives in Costa Rica, we saw beaches, and rainforests, and sloooothhhs. They say traveling together can really teach you a lot about a person but what we learned is that we were very much in sync and our strengths and weaknesses complimented the other. My personal favorite part about the trip was that all of the hotels were under the impression that this was our honeymoon- they rolled out the red carpet and frequently referred to Ben as Mr. Doose.... hahaha. After this trip we were pretty much connected at the hip and moved in together a few months later.

Everyone asks me what is different about our relationship now that wasn't there before. I think having the time and space to grow separately as individuals allowed us to really understand who we are and what we want out of life. Our relationship is built on trust, understanding, and valuing the other person.

Our story isn't a straight path, although not many are I don't think. Regardless, our journeys gave us both the opportunity to learn and grow along the way and we are so grateful that they eventually led us back to each other. Let the adventure continue - but from here on out we walk the path together.

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