LOCAL from Madalyn

The year was 2017 and I had just moved to Kansas City after college hoping for a new beginning. To my dismay, the job market for my field of work was not hot and after months of applying for jobs in the Kansas City area, I reluctantly decided to apply for jobs elsewhere, which landed me back in Columbia, MO with no plan and nowhere to live.

I finally sublet a room at a duplex some friends were renting and one winter night, without me even realizing, in walked my future husband. He was friends with my roommates, visiting for the weekend and we hit it off almost instantly. Despite growing up just 20 minutes from each other, our paths had never crossed until that winter in Columbia.

After a year of long distance, and making the drive back to Palmyra every weekend to work on our house, we finally moved into our first home. After 4 years if dating, Chase popped the question on the top deck of a boat under the New Year’s Eve fireworks in Chicago. If you would have told 2017 me that all of my perceived misfortune would lead me exactly where I needed to be, I wouldn’t have believed you, but here we are.

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