::WITH APOLIGIES TO TRAINSPOTTING::

Sometimes, you're tested. Sometimes, there is no plan. Sometimes, you decide one thing only to have it usurped by another. Sometimes, life treats you like shit.

But, as in every test, there are choices. Choices about where to go. About where to stay. Choices about what and how and when. Choices that act as event horizons of fate. You make them, and they make you.

Austin, we are passing these tests with flying colors. Not just flying colors, actually -- with gorgeously levitating shafts of iridescence and glow. We are passing them with rainbows, and shouts of joy, and the odd kind of certainty that can only come when there are no decisions left to make other than who drapes his or her arm across your back at night. No matter what Scantrons life throws at us, you and I have a #2 pencil to share.

The flood, the wreck, our jobs and the time they steal from us, the cars, even the uncertainty... We are passing these tests. We are fucking summa cum laude at life right now.

I am so proud of us right now, despite everything. I will stand by you, just as you perpetually stand by me.

I love you, as I have and will.