My favorite love story: ours (part 2)

Watching Mitch play in Mexico live (thanks to Youtube)

2016
Mitch was back home in Australia, and we both found ourselves gravitated towards old habits. And by old habits, I mean relationships. I was right back in the relationship that had ended before meeting Mitch, and he was home rekindling a relationship that was rocky over the summer. And so that’s how the next year went. We had little contact here and there, but both decided to work on what we already had, as building our own relationships was far more important than our friendship.

But then springtime came around, and I was single again. This time for good (eye roll). And lucky me, Mitch was heading back over soon for baseball. The countdown was on and I was beyond excited to watch him play again! May seemed to drag on and I just could not wait until June. He planned on coming for my graduation before the season started and we would get to spend time catching up. The breakup didn’t seem so bad because I had something to look forward to. And then it happened. And I don’t mean Mitch arriving. Nope. Instead, I went RIGHT BACK to the same relationship that had already ended twice now! Lesson clearly not yet learned. So the decision was made that this summer, Mitch and I would not catch up, and I didn’t go to any games.. To this day I still regret it.  
 
Fall came around and Mitch was headed to college in Iowa to play baseball. Being in time zones that were only 3 hours apart and not 15 made Facetiming much easier. Lucky for me, I was forgiven for going MIA the few months before. We would chat about school, friendships, relationships, and baseball. I was able to watch a few of his games, including when he played for Australia at the Baseball World Cup in Mexico. He would tell me about nights in the dorms and I would tell him about long shifts at work.

Both of our relationships were in rough places. We would go to each other for advice, which always ended up being “you have to do what makes you happy.” But Mitch and I were both very unhappy. We also understood the comfortability of just working things out. We would always help each other find ways to make things work in our own relationships. If Mitch messaged me about something his past girlfriend did, I put myself in her shoes and explained how maybe it wasn’t as bad as he thought, and vice versa. We were practically On-Call Dr. Phil’s for each other. Plenty of times, I called him bawling my eyes out, and would eventually hang up laughing my head off. And there was a point where, no news was good news, because that meant we were both doing just fine.

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2017
Mitch had been enrolled to college in Iowa for around 6 months when he found out his elbow was injured and needed surgery. Back to Australia he went, and our time difference was once again totally opposite. I would wake up as Mitch was going to bed and vice versa. After his surgery, I sent a few checkup messages here and there. He would send me a photo of his massive brace, and I would tell him to get better soon. Because of surgery, he wouldn’t be coming back to the U.S for baseball, which meant another summer I wouldn’t see him. We slowly heard from each other less and less, and eventually we’d only speak maybe twice a month.

Until next time,
Tay

Taylor Thompson & Mitch Neunborn