And then he text...

After dinner with my instructors, I returned back to my room at the bed and breakfast and saw the blinking red light on my horrible global phone rented through our phone company. And there it was..... a text message that read "Is this Traci?" Finally, mystery Dutchman had contacted me! I had no idea what he looked like (other than a very vague Facebook picture), what his story was, or even if he really was a good guy or if J.S. was just saying that. I was taking a total shot in the dark here.

I replied and began explaining my situation. Although I knew I needed to tell him why I was requesting his help, I was more so curious about his Dutch dairy and his story. We text a good amount that night, but because of the time difference our schedules tended to conflict. At the time of J-Dawg's first texting me, I had zero interest in boys and had just made the decision to only focus on graduation and finding a job. I was currently seeing S, a guy that I had gotten back together with after a very messy, awful relationship and breakup (Please don't ask why, I have no good reason nor excuses). But I knew I'd need to cut all ties with S, because I just couldn't see a relationship with him outside of college.

This was Our Backyard View

*Some back story: Growing up in a semi-rural background and being a proud member of the FFA and 4-H, agricultural education has always been a passion of mine. Also having one brother in the beef industry, and the other being a team roper, I've always had a picture in my mind of what I wanted my adult life to be like. In my dreams, it always consisted of living in a modest home, married to a small town man who has tons of ambition and shared the same passion and interests as me, and together, raise children and animals  in a small tight-knit community. 

Doesn't seem like too difficult of a request, right? Wrong. No matter how hard they tried, each boyfriend I dated was lacking some crucial attributes, whether it be ambition, warmth, or an understanding of the importance of agriculture. In both relationships with Butthead and S, I stayed as long as I could, but still always had a foot out the door, thinking "there's gotta be something more, gotta be more than this, I need a little less hard time, I need a little more bliss" (which wasn't fair to them).  I probably wasn't EXACTLY what they wanted either, so the fact that neither of those relationships worked out was probably a blessing for us all. 

Both times, both S and Butthead could feel my restlessness. Both relationships were somewhat similar, never mind the fact they shared the exact same birthday and had very similar personalities. On the verge of my and S' breakup, he had said "You are not gonna find your 6'2 Christian cowboy and move onto some huge plot of land. Give it up."  By March 2011, I had completely given up one the thought of finding "the one" and began to come to terms with the fact that I'd be living as an old lady with a goat farm. One by one I started naming my goats.. Sheila, Jo, Chester...

Each night, I continued talking to J-Dawg about my Dutch lessons and he helped me with my homework. The most fun part was sending him text messages in Dutch, and trying not to make any mistakes. He was also aware I was seeing S, and our talks remained completely platonic. We covered topics anywhere from the government and regulations in the Netherlands, to Charlie Sheen, to eating veal, to leadership skills, and everything in between. Although I didn't know too much about Sir Dutchman at this point, I knew he was very easy to talk to, and I realized I may have found a lifelong friend...