Glenn Brunkow
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This is my anniversary week. I know, I am kind of proud of myself that I thought of it a week ahead of time, too. Every year the day seems to sneak up on me.
Jennifer deserves a whole lot more than I usually do for our anniversary. I blame it on genetics, but I am not good at gift giving.
In the past few years, we have decided to get something the farm needed as anniversary gifts. I think it is really Jennifer's way of conceding that I am just not very good at buying gifts. We have bought feed bunks, gates and other things we needed around the farm. I know it makes me the last of the romantics. I can hear the eye rolling from here and yes, Jennifer does deserve all the sympathy she is getting right now.
However, this year we are actually doing something other than buying boring practical stuff. I have a meeting in Washington, D.C. Jennifer is going out with me a few days early, and we are going to visit Tatum. I know, a business meeting in D.C., and you are wondering if that is really an anniversary worthy trip. All I can say is: baby steps.
We are really looking forward to the trip. A couple of years ago we traveled to a wedding and took a few extra days to do whatever we wanted. We found it to be quite enjoyable. I know many of you are wondering what kind of person I am that I was surprised to learn that traveling for entertainment was enjoyable. I also assume that there are others of you who are reading this and thinking, "traveling for fun? We might have to try that."
OK, so the last time I said we were traveling for fun was to a wedding, and this time we are tacking a weekend onto meetings. I didn't say we were good at it; we are approaching this with baby steps. Who knows, some day we might take a full-blown vacation with no other reason than to just relax and enjoy ourselves. We can all have dreams.
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This is 29 years, and I have to say they have gone by in a blur. We have had four different houses, raised two kids, between us had nine different jobs and had seven dogs. There have been a whole lot of good times, and those are the times that I remember the most. There have also been a lot of times that weren't as rosy, but we managed to survive and come out the other side stronger.
Our lives have changed over the years, but looking back the changes were subtle. It's funny how when you are in the middle of raising small children it seems like an eternity before you. Then it passes in the blink of an eye.
It seems like, up to this point, that everything can be marked in terms of our family. We had a couple of years before kids, then came the baby and toddler years, followed by the grade school years. The teen years were some of the best and hardest times. Suddenly we were empty nesters with the kids in college, and now we are parents of adults. You know what? I wouldn't have it any other way.
Now, after 29 years we are on the edge of a new time - one that I hope is more about us and maybe doing some of the things on our bucket list. Maybe this travel for fun thing will catch on. Up until now all the travel we have known was for a purpose, sports, livestock shows and meetings. I could maybe get used to traveling for fun.
All I know about the future is that I don't know anything. Well, that and it will both move slowly and fly by in a blink at the same time. I do know that there is no one else I would rather experience it with than my wife. It's wild to think about the fact that we have been together longer than not, and we passed that time a long time back.
I know that often I take the fact that Jennifer is with me for granted, and I should not. I am a blessed man, and I am grateful for her and anniversaries to remind me of how lucky I am. The good Lord was watching over me to send someone to me who could put up with my crazy ideas and faults.
This year might not be one of practical gifts. The gates and feed bunks will just have to be boring end of the year purchases. Hopefully, it will be a year where we remember to be thankful for all we have been given and all that we have before us. Life is good, and together it is even better.
Glenn Brunkow is a fifth-generation farmer in the Northern Flint Hills of Pottawatomie County in Kansas. He was a county Extension educator for 19 years before returning to farm and ranch full time. He can be reached at [email protected].
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Glenn Brunkow
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