New Beginnings

A New Beginning

Life with a child was definitely an adjustment, life with a child while in your senior year of college while being an athlete was an even bigger adjustment. After about a month of school, my mom, Ian, and I all had a schedule down.

My mom retired officially from actually seeing people in her office full time and only volunteered at the local pregnancy center, so she took over as our full-time babysitter. She'd come in every morning, on Mondays she'd clean even though I told her not to and then she and Gracie would go off on whatever adventures that she had planned for each day and end up back at her house where Ian or I would go pick her up when the first one of us was done with class and practice.

I practiced until 6:00 every night but Friday so Ian would make dinner and usually have it ready by the time I got home each evening. The big adjustment was when his season started back up again and he was gone from Thursday at noon until Sunday at the ass-crack of dawn nearly every other weekend, but we made it work. Gracie went to her first hockey game when she was six months and one week old and Ian scored the first goal of the season and she slept through the last two periods. She was a pro at sleeping through games by the semester break when we got four precious weeks to ourselves with nothing to do but hang out with Gracie.

My last semester was a whirlwind, it would've been either way but it was extra crazy with Gracie at home. Luckily I had some amazing professors who didn't mind if I brought her along with me to a few classes every now and again and it helped a little with the guilt I had over leaving her with my mom or Ian all of the time. She was a happy and content baby and she eventually got the hang of sleeping through the night and was a champ while we went to Ian's games or when Ian and my parents brought her to my games. She got to watch me play an entire season of college hockey without missing a game in my last year that I capped off by winning my third straight national championship to end my career. Ian took a photo with me in my gear holding Gracie during the on ice celebration with my national championship hat on and Gracie with her team t-shirt and black bow on and it was instantly my favorite photo I had ever been in because it represented everything that I had done in four years.

I celebrated my final presentation of my college career, my capstone presentation, by bringing her with me and ended up giving the presentation while holding her in the baby carrier because she didn't want to sit with Ian.

It left her with only graduation to have to sit through, a week after she turned one. We decided to wait and have a joint party for her birthday and my graduation instead of trying to do both things, but we did make sure we let her have a small cake with candles and presents on her actual birthday the week beforehand. So to say that the last two weeks of April were hectic would've been an understatement.

"Can you believe it?" Ian remarked as we went back into the house at my mom and dad's cottage during our party.

"Believe what?" I asked as he watched out the sliding glass door as I grabbed napkins from the counter.

"That it'll be five years this summer since we started really hanging out?" he replied, "And now we have everything, well you have everything, I have everything but a college degree," he laughed.

"It is crazy," I sighed, walking over and leaning my head on his shoulder, "I can't believe she's one, or that I'm done with college and actually have a job here."

"So it's official and we can all talk about it?" he asked.

"It's official," I smiled, "They told me at graduation that everything was all set, I start in two weeks."

"I'm proud of you Nat," he said, kissing my cheek.

"I'm proud of us," I replied, "You did all of this too, you're an NCAA athlete and a dad, that's pretty damn cool. And you're a good dad too."

"Yeah but it's your day right now," he replied, "We're reaching the next chapter in our lives."

"It's a new beginning," I replied, "Welcome to the real world, for real this time," I added with a laugh.

"I think we'll be okay," he said, putting his arm around me.

"Me too," I sighed, "Me too."

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