The girl who packs up her life and moves across the country for a guy. I was raised on those age-old fairy tales that follow the same plot line: Girl is alone and seemingly miserable, girl gets saved by Prince Charming, girl and boy live happily ever after. And even though these stories seemed romantic, from a young age, I knew that something seemed off.
I guess you could say that I was a feminist before I even knew what the word meant. As the eldest child in a traditional Greek-American household, I was forced to be. Why did my younger brother have to only take out the trash a two-minute task , while I had to wash all the dishes? It irked me that my parents seemed so progressive in most regards but that when it came to gender, their decisions never added up. Whether it was the chores I was assigned or how far from home I could ride my bike, I filed those situations away.
And time after time, these slights created a foundation for me to become the most independent woman I could. As I grew older, I prided myself on my ability to defy expectations based on my gender. I moved to New York City at the age of 18, completely financially independent from my parents.
I decided to major in finance at a business school filled with prideful men. I broke up with my boyfriend of five years because I needed to find myself. I spent four months backpacking alone through the South Pacific at the age of So when I met the most amazing human being at the ripe age of 22 — one who embraced and actually encouraged my independence — I knew I had stumbled on the real deal. At the time, I was at the height of my freedom.
I just landed a big finance job in New York, moved into my big-girl apartment in Chelsea and had enough disposable income to actually enjoy happy hour. But then again, I had never been in a relationship with anyone who made me feel as whole as I did when I was with Dupi. From the beginning, Dupi and I were true equals. We started out as friends at New York University, and years after our less mature relationships faded into the background, we fell for each other fast.
