14 years ago, I was 18 years old and starting my first year of college at Iowa State University. It was my first time away from my home, my family, my friends, and my boyfriend. However, over the summer, I had joined a Gundam Wing yaoi mailing list, wrote a bunch of fics, and met a lot of great people.

This included a girl named Jessica who went by Snow Tigra.

Over time, the two of us started talking more online, and we became friends. She was there for me when my boyfriend stopped talking to me, and even sent me a plushie white tiger so I wouldn’t feel so alone.

Spoiler: I still have that tiger and it comes to cons with me.

We started writing fics together, and chatting more and more, and at one point during one of our chats she mentioned how she had a crush on this girl in one of her classes. I went along with it, but when we were done chatting, I realized something.

I was jealous.

I was jealous that she liked another girl.

And then… I proceeded to ignore her because, in that moment, I discovered that I liked girls.

I thought, “no, no way,” because up until that point I had had a boyfriend, and all the friends I grew up had also had boyfriends. Being gay was out of the question, I was supposed to find a guy and marry him. So I avoided talking to her at all cost, would say I was too busy, but, after a while, I started to miss her.

So finally, one day, I went to the campus library and wrote the email that would change my life forever. I told her why I had stopped talking to her and not only came out, but admitted that I liked her. She was stunned, but decided that it would be best if we took things slow. We hadn’t even met in person, yet, and I did just break up with my boyfriend. I agreed, but we quickly realized that, nope, that wasn’t enough either.

So, on this day, 14 years ago, we decided to start dating. This involved a lot of chatting, fic writing, roleplaying with different characters, sending each other gifts, meeting up at conventions, her coming to see me on a monthly basis from Minnesota to Iowa, and finally, after I graduated in 2006, I got in her car with all of my stuff and moved to Minnesota.

I never knew, all those years ago, that that email I was writing was going to lead to me meeting this amazing woman who would become my support system, my seamstress, my coauthor, just… everything, absolutely everything. I had no idea that we’d have this house with these cats. I had no idea that we’d be creating art together. I had no idea that we would becoming inspirations to people. I had no idea that we’d be talking about so many issues together and promoting such positive messages. I had no idea, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Happy Anniversary. I love you :)