Statistics.

I'm 25 years old and after only a year and half of marriage, I'm getting divorced. It sounds so simple and boring when put like that. I'm officially a statistic. I'm another number on someone's list.

But it's not simple and boring. It's depressing, terrifying, awful and all too real. Everyone who's ever gotten engaged knows that there's a huge chance their marriage won't last, and the people who deny it are lying. But we all want to be different. We all want to believe ourselves when we say "No, I'm going to be with this person forever. I'm going to make it work." I was no exception. I come from a family where divorce seems to be a common occurrence and I wanted to be different. When I said "til death do us part", I wholeheartedly meant it. I knew that I was going to do everything in my power to avoid that statistic, to stick it out "for better or for worse".

What I should have done was made sure my husband felt the same way. I guess he didn't feel that strongly about the for better or worse part, because less than 2 years into our marriage, he left. I won't go into the details (frankly, I'm a little fuzzy on them myself) but basically, one day, without much warning, he moved out. That was January 23, 2009. In one day, our once happy perfect-for-each-other life was shattered. He wouldn't tell me where he was going or how to reach him, and he just...was gone. I didn't hear from him again until a month later when a process server showed up at the house with divorce papers. That night I got an email from my husband saying that it was over, he wasn't coming back. Yes, you read that right. My husband ended our marriage in an email. It's the wave of the future, kids.

So now, here it is Mid-March and I have a plan. I'm going to start over.

I was born on the east coast. Moncton, New Brunswick, to be specific. My family moved out to British Columbia when I was 7 years old, and I've lived here ever since. I grew up in a small community in northern B.C, and it's where I consider home. Life has taken me all over the province, from the North Coast to the South Coast, and now the Fraser Valley, but I will always consider that small, cold, friendly town my home. I moved to the Fraser Valley in July of 2006 and met my husband 2 months later. I never really felt at home here, and have wanted to move ever since the day I arrived, but I stayed for him. Now that I no longer have a reason to stay, I'm moving on.

As much as I love and am going to miss B.C, I think it's given me all that it can. At least at this stage in my life anyway. Perhaps someday in the future I'll find myself back here again, but for now, I'm saying goodbye to the West Coast and heading east. My immediate family is spread all over North America (none are left in BC), but the biggest contingent of relatives are still back in Moncton. So I'm packing what I can into a tiny U-Haul trailer, and in 5 days, I'm hitting the road. Since my husband is still paying for my car, he gets to keep it. Instead, my mother is driving here from Pennsylvania with her new husband, and we're going to make the drive together. I got a call last night from Wyoming, so she should be here later this evening. We'll finish all the packing over the weekend and get some of the legal stuff finalized and hopefully be leaving by Tuesday.

I'm going to be honest-- I'm terrified. I have very little money, no job or apartment waiting for me when I get there, and a cat who is going to HATE being stuck in a car for a week. There are so many things that can go wrong, and it's going to be a lot of hard work. But you know what? There are so many things that can go right too. And I'm single and friendless, so what else do I have to do but hard work? So yes, I'm scared out of my mind, but I'm also excited too. I used to be scared of the unknown, but this divorce is forcing me to face my fears and to not let them control me. So that's my plan. To learn from this, start over, and possibly have a little fun along the way.

So that's what this blog is about. I'll hopefully be able to find some hotels with internet access so I can post each day as I travel from west to east. I'll take lots of pictures and be sure to post as many as I can. I imagine most of the time will be spent staring at cows while listening to my iPod, but I'm sure there will be plenty of interesting moments in between. And when I arrive at my destination, I'll keep updating this blog with my process of finding a job (or two) and a place to live. Eventually I'll start dating, and yes, I'll talk about that too. I'm going to talk about everything, because you know, sometimes it's all in the details. I'll try not to bore you too much. And I'll always try to include a picture or two.

I know a lot of you reading this have been with me since the beginning of this process and I just want to thank you again. Even though we're spread all over the world, I still consider you my friends and your support means a lot to me. I know it can't be easy to have a friend in pain, and I thank you for standing by me. You will never know how much I appreciate you all. I'm glad that you're going to be at least taking this journey with me in spirit. I hope at least one of us enjoys the ride.

--Kristi
Location: Chilliwack, B.C, Canada