Seven years ago today, my wife and I tied the knot and began our journey as husband and wife, just as my brother and his wife did last week. Looking back at all we have done and been through, I must say, it's been quite a journey so far. There have been mostly good times, but as in any marriage, we have had our struggles as well. Starting off, we were young and naive, in love and struggling to figure out our relationship. We learned quickly on that communication is key, that we were never going to be able to force each other to change, and that when we do change, it's ok and we need to love the person we each become. Throw in that mix the rest of life and it's been a wonderful roller coaster. Mostly ups, but definitely with some wild, screaming down hills thrown in there. So where have we come so far?
When my wife and I met, we were each beginning our journey's in our respective careers, my wife as a teacher and myself as a painting contractor. I slowly moved my way into my wife's apartment at the time, incrementally spending more and more nights there and less and less at my parent's house. I finally had most of my close at her apartment, just not any other "stuff" that I had accumulated over my life before her. After a couple years, and knowing we were going to spend the rest of our lives together, we bought our first house. For me, that's when I officially moved out of my parents house. Soon after we moved in to our house, I asked my wife to marry me, knowing (with at least 97% certainty) that she would say yes. And she did. We got our first dog, started working on fixing up our house, and enjoying our time together. Two years later, we tied the knot and had the most wonderful reception right in our back yard to save money. It was a pig roast, all our family and friends were there, and it was a wonderful time. We went on our honeymoon in Ireland, had a blast, and missed our flight home (a story for another time). Flash forward a couple more years, we bought our second dog, land in Vermont for camping, and life was good. I struggle now to remember which came first, our second dog or our land. I could ask my wife because she would probably know, but she is sleeping and I don't want to wake her. Flip forward another year and our son was born. We had planned on waiting another year or two before having kids, but...Surprise, there he was. Some people might have been resentful, but we embraced it fully and would never have it any other way at this point. Flip forward two more years and our daughter was born. A year after that, we bought another house, moved into it, and rented out our old one. Flash forward one more time a couple of years and here I am looking back at all the joy that has filled my married life.
I am blessed to have had the support of family, friends, but most of all, my wife and children. What the future holds, I have no idea. I can plan extensively for certain things to happen but, in the end, no one knows for certain what will pan out (unless you are a determinist and claim that everything is predestined). Again, that is conversation for another time, and one that I would probably only get involved in with a handful of people, Shaw being one of them. But today is simply our anniversary, a day that my wife and I celebrate our love for each other. And it definitely helps that our anniversary is only 3 days after my birthday as I can never forget when it is. (I am horrible with birthdays and anniversaries of any kind). I know it's only seven years, but I have had a few friends get divorced after only 1. I will be proud of how far we have made it today, and I will definitely look forward to many years of happiness to come. I just hope that all my friends, especially the ones that are just embarking on their journey of marriage, find as much love as we did for each other, and figure out how to make their marriage work best for them. Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment