This month at AWN, we were encouraged to write about our career and military spouse employment, and to say that this post has been a long time coming is an understatement!

Let me start at the beginning:

I graduated college in May 2011 with a major in marketing, a minor in advertising, and a dream of one day becoming a hotshot exec in the advertising world, with a corner office and the whole nine yards.

By the time I walked across that stage to receive my college diploma, I had a job offer in marketing and research at a tech startup in San Francisco, a budding relationship with my soldier (who still had a year of school to go, due to a deployment halfway through college), and no idea what I was getting myself into.

Fast-forward three weeks when I hopped on a plane and landed in San Francisco with four bags and a thirst to prove myself.

Starting my first job in the tech capital of the world as a marketing research analyst was a dream come true. At 21, I was financially independent, building my credibility in a startup company working with clients from major fortune 500 and 100 companies, and living in one of the coolest cities in the world.

I grew up in the two years I worked at my first job and learned so much about myself. I began to understand what “office life” was like as a young professional, putting in seriously long hours at times. I started to learn about corporate structure and office politics and what that is like.

And most of all, I was learning what life was like as an independent woman—who happened to be head over heels for a soldier, now stationed in Korea.

In San Francisco, especially in the startup scene as a recent college graduate, being in a job for two years is almost unheard of. This unsettled curiosity made me start to wonder what else was out there. I was happy at my old company, but I felt like something was missing.

In the latter portion of 2012, going into 2013, I was very involved in a tech industry mentorship group in the city and had been paired with a wonderful mentor who happened to work at Google. While we had a very productive mentor/mentee relationship, I was still struggling to find that missing piece I was feeling. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was.

After the program ended in early 2013, my mentor and I continued to meet on a regular basis. One afternoon, I remember receiving a phone call from him asking if we could have lunch the following day.

A position had opened at Google that I was more than qualified for, given my experience.

A whirlwind week of interviews flew by, all taking place as I was preparing to visit my soldier in Korea for three weeks. A final interview via Skype at 3 a.m. while I was in Korea made me realize that Google was pretty serious about me. So, I had better get pretty serious about Google.

I tried to do some soul searching and weigh my options. If I would be doing a similar position at Google that I was at my current company, would the missing piece I was feeling somehow be filled?

The week after I got back to San Francisco, I got a call from the recruiter.

Google wanted me.

I still didn’t have an answer to my question if a similar position at a different company would fill this void I was feeling, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

Giving notice to my old company was bittersweet—these people had taken me in as a recent college grad and spit me out as a much more mature adult, with two years of solid industry experience. The relationships I formed and the people I become friends with made me seriously doubt if what I was doing was the right thing. But again, when an opportunity like Google knocks, you run to answer.

Today, it’s been almost five months since I started at Google.

In those five months, I have once again learned so much, but this time, what it’s like to work at one of the biggest companies in the world. It’s been exciting and overwhelming and a lot of work. But more importantly, people have been wonderful, and I couldn’t have asked for a better team.

After all this, I wish I could tell you that the piece I felt was missing had been filled. I wish I could tell you that this experience has left me more inspired than ever to work my behind off for years until I reach my former vision of becoming that hotshot female executive.

But, what I discovered after all the excitement has settled, is that what’s missing is the other half of my heart.

My boyfriend of almost three years will be coming home from a year-long hardship tour in December and heading to Alabama for a two-year flight school program. We’ve been dating long distance since I moved to San Francisco in June 2011, and I finally realized that what’s missing from my life is him.

Now is the awkward, what’s next?

I’d love to move to Alabama at some point to be with my soldier so we don’t have to do another how many years of distance. I’d like to be able to start a life with him and have the opportunity to argue over closet space, whose turn it is to do the dishes, and try to make him believe that cheese and wine is a perfectly balanced dinner—but most of all, I want to have the opportunity to grow together as a couple living in the same town.

When the time comes for me to move to be with my soldier, I’m going to look at it as an opportunity. I hope that my company will let me work remotely, but no matter what, I know that everything happens for a reason.

I know that I ultimately have to listen to what my heart tells me, and everything will work out as it should.

Now I turn to you—the experts. Please share your story with me! Did you move to be with your service member? How did you make the decision you did? Would you have done anything differently? What advice would you give me?