Today on the blog I wanted to get a little more personal. My first year as not only being a wife, but being a coach's wife, was quite lonely for me. As mentioned in our "pre-season," Jamison moved to St George before I did, so we lived apart for a month after being married for only a week. I was finally able to move down and we moved everything into our duplex. I thought we would be able to see more of each other but with fall camp going on, it felt like I saw the same amount of him when I lived 300 miles away.
To keep myself busy, I enrolled in full-time school and also accepted the first job I interviewed for. This turned out to be a huge mistake and I quit a few months later and found myself with a few in person classes, but that was the extent of my social interaction some days. Jamison is one of the hardest workers that I have ever met. This also means that he is usually the first to the office, and the last to leave.. great for the job, but this was a difficult adjustment for me as a new wife. If you ever need to learn independence from your husband, let him coach college football. To paint a picture of a typical week, Monday's and Tuesday's plan on him leaving before you get up, but getting back at 10 PM just in time to say goodnight. Wednesday's, hopefully he'll come home before the sun sets. Thursdays often seem like a "normal" 7:00 AM - 5:00 PM job. Away games mean saying goodbye Friday morning and having them crawl into bed at 3:00 AM Sunday morning. Home games are great because he will be home at a reasonable hour on Fridays and you can see him part-time on Saturdays before games. Saturday night lights are full of anxiety and excitement. It's hard to imagine your husband's job being based on how a bunch of 18-24 year-old boys perform, but that's our life! At the stage we are in, a win means so much which adds a level of anticipation throughout the week and on game day. I don't want to pretend like it wasn't hard and lonely, because it was, but THAT'S OKAY! I learned so much about myself and our marriage in the first six months. A few things I learned about me:
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I wanted to start my blog by introducing Jamison and I. This is our "pre-season" backstory describing our lives before my first season as a football coach's wife.
Jamison and I met back in 2018 at a pool party. We started dating soon after for about a month before I left on an 18 month service mission for The Church of Jesus Christ. After returning home, we dated other people for awhile before I moved to Provo to attend BYU. Jamison was there as a student assistant coach. He asked me out once I moved down there, and we hung out a few times. He made it clear to me that we were not dating, and just hanging out. I had another boy I was seeing at this time so it seemed like a mutual agreement to just be friends. This didn't last long. The following week, we started dating and spent everyday together. Jamison is a romantic, something I am not. He took me on some extravagant dates and impressed me with his thoughtfulness. Before my mission, I had apparently told Jamison I wanted to be proposed to at my grandmas house. I still have no remembrance of saying this... So when we decided to get married, he set up the whole thing on my grandmas front porch (which he now regrets seeing as I don't even remember saying I wanted to be proposed to at my grandma's). Our engagement was quick because we had to be married for August, aka fall camp for football. We got married July 9, 2021. Before we got married, our plan was to live in Provo and Jamison would continue as a volunteer coach. Two days before our wedding, he was offered a defensive assistant position at Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University). He took the job. Imagine this, we were on our honeymoon in Mexico, having to face-time my mother-in-law to find a place to live. Jamison had to be in St George by the 24th of July, and we got home from our honeymoon on the 17th. After a week in Provo, Jamison packed a small bag and moved into a family friend's house in St George while I stayed in Provo and worked. My new husband, who I thought would spend all his days and hours with me, now lived 300 miles away. We had only been married for two weeks. This long distance went on for about a month until we were able to move into our duplex apartment in the middle of August. Funny story. While I was in Provo and Jamison was in St George, I had to move out of my apartment because I sold it. So I moved into my in-laws basement and shared the 2 bedroom basement with Jamison's grandmother, and brother. I love his grandma, and she has been such a blessing to us, but she does not pick the ideal moments for chats. Multiple times, I would be heading back to the bedroom I was staying in after showering, when she would stop me and want to just tell me about what happened on Judge Judy that day. In the meantime I am standing there, wet hair and in a towel, trying not to be rude to my new grandmother-in-law. His brother stayed outside the bedroom I was in on a twin bed in the living area which meant I had to sneak out for work early each morning. This is the time when I started to realize that I would be doing a lot of things alone. Moving day finally came, and after packing up all of both mine and Jamison's things, by myself, my sweet mother-in-law, parents, and brother helped me pack up a Uhaul and move to St George. They were kind enough to help me get some things unpacked, all the while Jamison had a busy and full day at Fall Camp. At this point in our marriage, I still had no idea what it meant to be a football coach's wife. I would soon learn it means a lot of late nights in the office, lonely nights, and 5 months of constant stress. "Season 1" will show how I learned about the glamorous life of a coach's wife. |