Ben and I met in June of 2007, and he brought me back to life. Before I et Ben I was not in a very good place: I had just quit my hockey scholarship in the states, and moved to Edmonton where I got a job in an office in order to be with my (ex) boyfriend. Our relationship was not a very healthy one, and needless to say it ended badly. In less than a month of living in Edmonton our relationship hit the breaking point when one of my second cousins came and picked me up in the middle of the night with as much stuff as I could grab and took me to his parent’s house. The next day my aunt, who happened to be in Edmonton for the weekend, picked me up, and took me back to the house to grab the rest of my stuff, and drove me back to Calgary. Thank goodness for family.
So, there I was; broken and lost. I found myself living back at home and looking for a job in Calgary. I wound up getting an interview at COP for a guest services position. It sounded like a fun job, just what I needed. I remember walking in and seeing this really good lucking guy at the front counter when I asked for directions to human resources, little did I know that he would be my future husband. I had the interview, got the job, and started the following week.
There was a great group of people working in guest services that summer and I made some really awesome friends, but most importantly I met my champ. At first nothing much happened between us, except for the fact that I would go out of my way to ask him questions, pick the till closest to him, and offer to work any extra hours if I knew he would be there. Yes, I had a crush on him, but according to all the others that we worked with Ben was not looking for anything. After a few group functions we wound up getting to know each other a little more, but Ben was focused on running his first marathon in Calgary that was just a few weeks away and he was training like crazy. After the marathon, we started doing more things together. Then one weekend in late July, I managed to score tickets to the Stamps game (thanks grandpa) and it was more or less our first official date. We had a blast and then met some friends from COP after for a few drinks. The next day, hung-over, we decided to go climb Heart Mountain and boy were we naive; we had only packed ONE bottle of Gatorade and some trail mix. It was tough, we were thirsty, hungry, and hung-over, but once we got to the top (or as far as we could get since we took a wrong turn) we were awestruck by how beautiful it was and have been hooked on mountain climbing ever since. That was our first champ weekend (although we didn't have the name champs yet and had called it the weekend of fun). We continued to plan weekends full of fun and adventure every weekend and by any definition we were dating but we were both cautious of getting into another relationship, plus the fact that he was my supervisor at work. But we couldn’t resist. We had an awesome summer; we went hiking, mountain climbing, camping, running, white water rafting. We talked, laughed, and just enjoyed each other’s company. Ben ran the Edmonton marathon after the Calgary marathon and inspired me to pick up running, we trained together for the Okanagan half marathon in 6 weeks and we both have been training for some sort of running related event since. I remember one morning I woke up beside him and the first thing I thought was “you will wake up forever next to this guy.” I brushed the thought aside thinking that I was just being a girl. But, it was true; I had met my soul mate, my champ. In only a few months, Ben had brought me back to life.
Towards the end of August, we were inseparable. We worked together, and more or less lived together. My family had Sunday night dinners every Sunday, and Ben and I would go to dinner, at which point I’d pack a fresh bag of clothes and head back to his house. There was no official moving in. Gradually more and more of my stuff started staying behind. That was nearly 4 years ago and we have been together ever since.
In the last 4 years we have climbed mountains, hiked hundreds of kilometres, camped on top of mountains, skied waist deep powder, I finished my University Degree, I ran my first half marathon and then marathon, Ben ran the Boston Marathon along with other marathons, we started doing triathlons, Ben did the death race, I went to Peru, we moved to Revelstoke, along with everything else in between. It has been the best 4 years of my life, and I look forward to a life time together.
