There is something about the relationship of a woman and the dog she got in her early twenties. Here you are, learning about what an insurance premium is or learning to file your taxes, or just how to adult functionally and into your life you draw a sweet four-legged companion. The thought is originally that it will be nice to have a companion, someone to care for and have adventures with. What you don’t realize is that you are picking the witness to your life. 

So much life happens in the season from post-bachelor’s to working professional. You are learning how to function in the world, you are probably failing (spectacularly) at times and you are also having immense victories. Somewhere along the way, a life joins in alongside yours. There is often a lot of silence in the beginning of this relationship. You are strangers to each other. You don’t know that the look she is giving you means that she needs to go potty, or that she needs playtime, or that she needs that special place on the top of her head scratched juuuuust right. She doesn’t know that you had a bad day, that you lost a job, that you got promoted, that your friends are moving away. 

But slowly, over time, the fluency of the language between your souls increases. The little hop she does means she wants scratches at the base of her spine. Her intense eye contact with the shake of her head just so means that you are late in giving her dinner. Your tears mean she needs to rest her head on your leg. Your laughter means its time to run around and jump for joy. When you tilt your torso and point towards the food bowl, it means it’s dinner time (the best time of the day!!! Every Day!!!)

You are learning to be a grown up. She is learning to be yours. You are learning to be hers.

There is something about the relationship of a woman and the dog she got in her twenties. In a season of change, she is constant. In friends moving, she is there. In you moving, she is alongside you. Babies are born, she is there. Family members are lost, she is there. Family members are added, she is there. Through grief, through change, through instability, through joy, she is the buoy that you cling to. Holding fast to the constant through the rough seas of your twenties. The maelstrom of your twenties smooths into the placid weather of life in your thirties. The storms are less frequent and raging. Rather than a stationary buoy, you have a preserver that moves with you in the waves and currents. Its presence is reassuring and comforting.

You care for her physically, but her care for you is holistic. Body and Soul. All those years ago, you found her. She walked alongside you. A quiet presence, a wordless advocate, a gentle protector.

And one day, she will rest. She will lay her weary head down. Her work is done. Your world will fracture a little, but it won’t shatter. She taught you better. She taught you to keep moving forward. You are who you are because there is something about the relationship of a woman and the dog she got in her twenties.