Lieter Illustrated

Before the ceremony, I was kind of dreading graduation. I was thinking about how such a pain in the ass it was to sit down for 3 hours listening to speeches and watching people walking across the stage who just barely scraped by. It was an exciting moment but at the same time it felt like a drag. During the ceremony I found my mind wandering. I was thinking about how excited I was to celebrate that night, being able to see all of my friends and spend time with them drinking and talking shit while also being able to meet new people from Waukee sounded like a blast. I had no idea that the NIGHT of graduation would change my life.

I still remember the first time I laid eyes on you, my first thought was "holy shit are all women from Waukee this pretty?" You walked in by yourself which I thought was very confident, you were introduced to everyone, and I knew that you were special. Over the night I was progressively more drawn to you, trying to get close to and talk to you as often as possible. I knew that this was going to be something special. It felt perfect too, the start to the summer after senior year, closing one chapter and starting another.

What followed graduation is the best summer of my life. At the start it was immediately something different. Summers prior had felt boring. There was nothing to do all day, people didn't want to hang out frequently, I was typically just stuck playing video games, being bored, and having a horrible sleep schedule (chud.)

The first few weeks of summer felt electric. There was this new girl in my life (you!) and we spent a ton of time together, however, compared to past relationships where this might have felt suffocating, this was a breath of fresh air. I felt like a different person.

Then we went through our first test. You left for England.

We snapped at the times where our time zones overlapped. We stayed in touch despite several thousands of miles between the two of us. The FaceTime calls every night were amazing. We both significantly changed our sleep schedules just to be better for each other. That only made my confidence in our relationship grow, especially as we intended to go to different colleges.

Then you came back, I loved making that bouquet for you and seeing your smile. Somehow we had only been together for a couple of weeks, but I already knew you were my soulmate.

Then we had our second test. I left for Europe.

Same situation here, we kept in touch when we could, FaceTiming, snapping, and being very adaptable to the circumstances.

That further improved my confidence in our relationship.

After I got back from the Netherlands, we had a great rest of summer. Spending all the time together, going to grad parties and learning more about each other. Every day going on another adventure with my baby. I felt so euphoric.

The final stretch of summer felt almost dream-like. Moving into Ames was quite a big task, the weather that day was so nice, building my bed with my Dad, while Mom prepped the kitchen. I was so grateful for you, bringing up the bar stools before your concert was so admirable. It wasn't even on the way. You are always so helpful and kind to me.

Then you came up to Ames and spent a couple days with me. While we continued to iterate on my room and just make everything look a lot better and a lot more homely.

You came up to Ames pretty frequently to spend time with me here at Iowa State. As we both got settled into the new semester, I loved hanging out with you and appreciated the effort you took to come visit me.

It was a huge adjustment to go from spending every waking second with you this summer, to getting just some evenings and weekends with you. I'm not sure if I ever really let on how much I missed you during this time. I didn't want to make you dislike Drake anymore than you already did.

Then the opportunity of a lifetime came along: Mom and Dad were out of town for 2 weeks, and needed us to spend some time back at home taking care of the cats. We were able to spend 2 weekends together alone. I was thrilled that I could spend some time with you away from the rest of the world.

Those weekends were a great time, minus a few issues like the worst haircut ever and the lockout. I was just so thrilled to be able to "play house" — as Jolene said — with you. I saw a glimpse into our future.

After knowing me for five days you took a bet on our relationship and you bought a couple tickets to a concert in October, four months in advance.

Then in October we had the opportunity to head up to Minneapolis together for our first ever trip. After a longish trip up and check in, we had that pizza across the street, which was delicious. Then the next day, we went to the Mall of America and got some new clothes that I still wear and love. Along with grabbing a nice coffee at the Capital One Cafe, and having a very nice dinner together.

This was my first live music event, and it was very special for me to be able to experience this alongside the love of my life. I really enjoyed seeing you so happy listening to your favorite artist perform.

After we had our experience in the twin cities, we had a pretty uneventful Thanksgiving break. It was good to spend some time with family. I am glad that you were able to spend a lot of time in the de Bruijn household since Martin and Berny were out of town (without us 😢). It is always such a blessing to see you getting along so well with Hans, Jolene, and Henry. Even though they can be difficult sometimes for sure. You always do such a good job of being present and engaging with them. Every time we visit family together like that I can picture you as my wife.

Then we had a couple of weeks of boring school before getting to Winter Break!

Winter break started with you getting your wisdom teeth removed. I'm glad that everything went smoothly and that you felt scentsational. I was also so proud of you for performing at Heartland Presbyterian and killing it!

Then we had the Pop n Jolly Christmas Concert. I was very glad that I was able to bring you along since usually those things are quite boring for me. We also got to have some great food at Fresko before the concert (we need to go back).

It was very refreshing to be back home and spend time with you and our families. It really brought back memories of summer and how awesome that time was.

We had an interesting New Years Eve experience, I am glad that didn't stay at that awful party (sorry Gavin) for too long. It was so weird seeing everyone that we were once really close to just being degenerate and not fun at all.

I was much happier when we got some ice cream and cuddled up downstairs watching Joe Bart.

Then at the tail end of winter break you got to meet my extended family for the first time! We headed out to the farm. I had a really good time and I hope you did too. We narrowly got caught sleeping in the same bed (Jolene saving lives), saw some relics (see the pic), and went on a trip down memory lane with Mary Lou's boxes of pictures.

It was great to see how much Mary Lou and everyone else liked you. I was very glad to see that you have universal approval. Everyone can see how amazing you are!

At the very end we moved you up into the Quarters, going to target and spending more money than we probably should've. I was so glad to have you just a 3 minute walk away instead of a 30 minute drive. I can't believe that I was able to survive with you so far away. I really appreciate all the effort on your end that it took to be driving up constantly.

Spring break was unfortunately uneventful, I promise we can do something more exciting next year. It was great to just have a week off though. Being able to decompress and do whatever is quite exciting. It was a interesting morning when Henry came in the bedroom to wake me up! Felt like we were playing among us or something.

Meeting Harlie — or Harly? — was something else too… Not to be mean but I am highly confident that you are still the favorite daughter in law.

Second semester so far has been pretty steady so far, but it has been really good. Just consistently a high quality of life instead of the ebbs and flows of semester one. It is fantastic sleeping in the same bed as you every night and being able to grow with you in all sorts of ways. Both of us doing content, going to the gym, and trying to excel in school (you more than me…).