Ten Years

It was on this day, ten years ago, that I stood in front of our friends and family and said “I do” to joining in marriage with Aaron.

Ten years. Wow.

Some things have changed since that time, while others stay the same. We have a house now, and a dog, although two of our cats have been with us all along. The only blogging I did at the time was on LiveJournal, but now blogging is a much bigger deal. Aaron still makes his weekly pilgrimage to the comic book store, and ten years of added comics makes me glad we bought a house larger than needed at the time.

And of course we are now parents to two beautiful daughters. That’s a big change.

The past ten years have been…interesting. I can’t say they’ve been totally awesome, because there have been a lot of painful moments mixed in with the happy ones. Our life together was nearly ripped apart at one point. But that’s real life, isn’t it? The vows say “for better or worse” but many people don’t think about the “worse” that could come their way, because it’s a happy day full of promise for the future.

The biggest myth about marriage is expecting it to be effortless like the media prefers to portray it. It’s not. It takes effort and determination and work, the levels of which can vary from day to day. You occasionally have to be utterly selfless, painfully swallowing your ego and setting aside your wants for the sake of the other person and for the sake of your partnership. However, it IS a partnership, and your partner will (should?) do the same for you when needed as well. And the rewards from each person making those small sacrifices are exponentially greater than what was given up.

(Kinda like a rehearsal for parenting, eh?)

We’ve been through ten years of absolute joy and plenty of struggle, and we’re still together. We learned how to be partners, how to work through our problems, and how to keep love going even when the newness starts to fade. It hasn’t always been easy, but it’s not always hard either.

I can look back at our first ten years of marriage and say we’ve learned a great deal about how to make a life together. I doubt we’ve figured it all out, but I don’t think that happens for a long, long time. If ever! But that’s OK, it gives us something to work towards.

Today on our tenth anniversary, I hope for many more years together for Aaron and I, and I hope our family will prosper in the years ahead. As cliche as it sounds, I’m so thankful to have married my best friend. I love you, dear, and I love our geeky little family.