It’s been exactly 10 years since I walked through the mall and met a cute stranger named Josh Fowler. My friend ended up giving him my number & that night as we were eating dinner, my friend said, “Oh Susan, don’t worry. He’ll call, you guys will fall in love & get married & have lots of babies!” I didn’t have a clue how defining those words would be.  Once I actually got to know that stranger from the mall, I quickly fell in love with him. We got married when I was 19 and he was 21.  According to our tax return that first year of marriage, we made $21,000 combined.  That wasn’t in the 1970s, it was 2006.  As my dad always says, ‘No one makes it in this world alone’ and that couldn’t be more true.  We worked our butts off, but we also had an incredible amount of support from others.  There were times that friends insisted on buying our groceries or we would find a random box of vegetables on our front porch, a time where we borrowed money from a family member, and one month where we literally couldn’t pay our rent. We weren’t spending frivolously, and at one point we collectively had 5 jobs and I was finishing up my undergrad.

Fast forward.  It’s been 10 years since we met. We are now debt free except for our mortgage and we run a successful & debt free business together that we LOVE. We have the most adorable two year old in the world who is not scared of anything.  We have close friendships that mean the world to us and best of all?  We’re closer to each other than we’ve ever been.  We still work a lot, but we’re living out our dreams and it’s the most wonderful thing in the world!

Here’s to 10 years since meeting the coolest stranger ever!

For those of you out there that are struggling, who can’t pay the bills, and who think that peanut butter & banana sandwiches are a delicacy for the weeks where you have extra money, don’t lose heart.  Keep working hard, saving your money (or paying off debt).  There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and the other side is so much sweeter!  It really is everything that you hope it will be.  And even better?  You’re already learning to work hard– if you keep that up even when you don’t have to, you’ll be unstoppable!