august ninth.

It's been six years since my handsome man started on his post-high school education. Six years of homework, exams, stress, uncertainty, running to class, not-so-great professors, awesome professors, skipping meals because of back-to-back-to-back classes, light-bulb moments, weariness, despair, searching, and making new friends. It's been the biggest blessing to walk with him through most of his days, both good and bad, holding many different roles: girlfriend, fiance, confidant, encourager, tutor, mock-professor, distract-er, and wife. While these past six years have sometimes felt like they would never come to an end, as I sit here and think back over the journey he has completed, it feels like it was just yesterday that he accepted the scholarship at Western Carolina University to play baseball. So much has happened since our first college plans were made when we were seniors in high school, and even though times were not always the most pleasant, times were always good.

My favorite part about these past six years, you ask? Well, that's an easy question to answer. It has been so incredible to watch shy little TJ Bargeron transform into a man of decision and confidence. Just a few years ago, the thought of talking with others for even a few minutes made his stomach turn. Not anymore, y'all. I've loved watching the Lord move in him and create a new heart in him every day; a heart that becomes more and more willing to go to the hard places that he has been called to, a heart that breaks for the very things that break the heart of his eternal Father. He has learned to trust and obey, two things that even the most devout Christ-followers struggle with daily.

Some may be ashamed to tell others that it took them six years to graduate with a bachelor's degree, but it is my prayer that Teesh is never, ever one of those people. He is graduating with much more than a degree, and everything has been timed perfectly to align with the plans that were laid out for him before the beginning of time. Our God created and chose him to make a difference for Him in the very same place he began to ask initial questions about Him, the very same place he confessed Jesus as Lord for the first time: high school. He's not done growing, and he won't be until the Lord calls him home, but he's still seeking and searching, which is the call placed on all of us. 

Teesh is going to be one heck of a math teacher, and I know he will love being the one to assign the homework rather than complete it. Not to mention how all the girls are going to have crushes on Mr. Bargeron. Maybe he'll tell them how scary his wife is and they'll leave him alone, whatcha think? :)

It's August 9, 2013, and I'm smiling from ear to ear in anticipation of 11 o'clock this morning when we'll watch him walk across the stage in front of hundreds of people. Happy graduation day to my better half, Mr. Troy Jerome Bargeron. In the words of Elle Woods: YOU DID IT! In the words of everyone in Ms. Anna's class: GO TIGERS! WE LOVE YOU, MR. TEESHY WEESHY!