just gotta keep on keeping on.

this whole "let's have your best friend leave for two years and your only communication is via the united states postal service and one internet-mediated page of script per week" thing is, for lack of a better word, difficult. two years sounds like an eternity, i know. everyone says it's going to "go by so fast" and "two years really isn't that much" but as time flies and you fill up that chart every day, you are constantly aware of how many dots you still have left.  you could be me, for instance, putting a sticker on the number sixty-two today (which seems like an eternity, doesn't it?) and realize that you have only filled up the "c" and two lines of the "a" in the phrase called to serve.  it's okay, it's okay, it's okay.

here's the reality of things.  each day is twenty-four hours, and two years will always remain seven hundred and thirty days long.  that's just how life goes, that's just how time moves.  as each day passes and you stick another little dot on that chart, you realize that time really will move fast.  it may not be the "oh, it'll go by so fast you won't even know it" that others say, but it isn't an eternity, it isn't forever.  

i wouldn't say it's easy. heck no, having your best friend miles and miles away is hard. so hard. but it's so not the impossible feat everyone claims it is.  if you love someone, you will love them the entire two years they are gone- it's as simple as that.  if you two are meant to be, you will be.  every letter is like a miracle, every email is a blessing, every photograph is something wonderful to look forward to.  he's doing what he's supposed to, so while he's gone, don't mope around.  make something out of yourself.  take this two year opportunity to learn to write awesome letters, attempt to create awesome photographs, and go forth with all the pinterest ideas you've pinned- he won't know where they came from, and he'll think you're the most creative being alive, trust me.

it's not forever.  it's two years.  two years that will make you both grow.  it's hard, but it's okay.  you'll be okay, he'll be okay.  sooner than later, you'll be at the airport waiting for him to come down the escalator- trust me.

b.