While wedding planning has been fun, there’s something looming over it all that just brings my anxiety level through the roof. That’s my immigration following it.
I’ve loved Mr. Dove for most of the time I’ve lived in the United States. I moved here as an 18 year old following a dream, and I’ve spend all of my adult life here. I didn’t leave Canada because I hated it, but because I wanted to explore on my own, to search and find a life I enjoyed. The US gave me the ability to play soccer at a level Canada didn’t. It also allowed me to find who I was. When I moved here, I really thought this would be a four year adventure and I’d move back to Canada after my undergrad.

My mom and me, the day I moved to the US All photos in this post are personal.
I lived in Missouri for a year before moving to North Dakota. I had had a rough year there, and was giving this whole “living thousands of miles away from everything I knew” thing one more go. It only took a few months before I met Mr. Dove and we started dating, and all of a sudden this US thing became less and less temporary. I wanted to be with Mr. Dove, I wanted to stay with him wherever he was, and I wanted to do it forever.

I finished my undergrad in 2013 and immediately went into graduate school, which mostly happened because I didn’t want to leave the US. I wanted my degree for sure, but I chose to stay in Minot because of Mr. Dove. He was the drivi...