While my parents didn't do things in the "traditional" sense, per se, they don't regret a thing.

Yes, my parents were high school sweethearts – but they met way before high school. The story starts at age 12, at –Wild Waves. Yes. Wild Waves. My mom went with one of her girlfriends, and my dad along with one of his friends. Their company had planned to set one another up with each other – so my mom's friend with my dad, and my dad's friend with my mom.

Spoiler, they ended up with one another instead.

They were on and off ever since, throughout middle school and high school. They are both the same age (my mom being a few months older) so they were in the same grades together and even worked at Wendy's with one another for a while there. The end of their high school career is where I come in – crazy, right? My dad was already set up to join the military as soon as he graduated, and that's exactly what he did.

He attended boot camp in California for about three months. Then, he went to Alabama for a military police training academy. He was there for about six months, and it was there that my mom called him and told him about the pregnancy. They were happy – scared, but happy. My mom told her parents and they didn’t have the same reaction. Who could blame them? My parents were 18 at the time. While they were still supportive of the pregnancy, they told her that they weren’t raising the baby. My dad’s parents were a little more understanding. In fact, my mom moved in with his parents and they were a big help.

They had always planned to get married, but I definitely rushed that process. They were married at 18.

After his training in Alabama, he was stationed in Japan for a year. It was two months in when he got the call that I was born. He flew back home three days later. He was able to stay home for about two weeks until he had to go back to Japan for another eight months. When he was in Japan, my mom and I stayed with his parents. I remember my Grandma Sue telling me stories of how attached to me she got and how she cried when we left for South Carolina.

When my dad got back from Japan, he was stationed in South Carolina, so we packed up the whole family and moved on base. I have few memories of running my toy lawn mower behind my dad as he was actually moving the grass. Of dressing up in my tiger costume for Halloween and running around everywhere. Barbecues in the hot air, toys everywhere.

They got a lot of help from their family and friends, but they also did it on their own. My mom says that the military helped a lot, financially, and we probably wouldn't have gotten so far if not for it.

I wanted to tell their story, to have it out there. I don’t know if I could have gone through what they went through at such a young age. But I do know that I have never met people with so much love, and I admire them every day for it. I am thankful every day for everything that they have been apply to provide for me.