LAUREN LIVES

A week and a half go, Alex and I celebrated One Year of Marriage. One year!! In the grand scheme of things, I’m sure one year will one day feel like such a small thing. Or maybe it won’t. But for now, when our focus is just one day at a time, it seems like a great culmination of things. Of learning and growing and laughing, together.

 I remember the week leading up to our wedding and even the week afterwards, we heard from a lot of people, their thoughts on that first year of marriage. I guess there’s just a lot more people out there with one year of marriage experience rather than 50 years 😉

We heard that the first year of marriage is the hardest. That it’s the easiest. The quickest, the slowest. The happiest. The most exciting, and the most daunting. We heard that we’ll never argue, or that we’ll argue all the time.

And in all honesty, after coming out the other side of one year, I’d say it was all of those things in one way or another. That’s just life though, whether you choose to tackle it with someone else at your side or not. A lot can happen in 365 completely unique days.

I’d love to label our first year of marriage as our happiest, but I only hope that with every year to come, we continue to build upon that happiness. I’d love to say it was easy 100% of the time, but it wasn’t. There’s a lot that goes into a marriage – you have to learn how to grow as one unit rather than two separate ones. There are a lot of long conversations to be had about finances and future plans and feelings getting hurt. But no matter how big or how miniscule the issue might be, you always come back to one driving point: does this make my partner happy; what can I do to make them happy? They’re your number one concern, and at the end of the day, life is going to throw a lot of little shit storms your way that you will have zero control over, and they’re your only constant. Take care of them.

I think what I’ve learned most through our first year of marriage is how to tackle life together. The moments we fail, the moments we seem to take a step back instead of forward, are the times we try to do too much on our own. It’s a fine balance between acting as a unit, but still maintaining all of the things that make you you…the things that made you fall in love with the other person in the first place.

I came across this quote the other day. It read, “You must love in such a way, that the person you love feels free…” “We do not belong to one another … we simply belong together.” Isn’t that such a beautiful thing?

So, to My Husband of One Whole Year (+ a week and a half) –

I love you to the moon and back (and back and back and back…)! There’s no one else in the world I’d rather climb mountains with – physical and metaphorical ones. The view from the top is so much better by your side. No one else’s chocolate chip pancakes I’d rather eat every Saturday morning – thanks for always saving the extra-chocolatey ones for me.

You know how to make me laugh when things get too serious. You know how to make me cry with just a few simple sentences in a card on holidays. You always know when it’s time to get outside for some fresh air – to take a walk around the neighborhood holding hands.

You are my biggest cheerleader. My favorite person to hug after a long day spent at the office. The best dog dad on the planet – your silly voices and made-up songs are one of my favorite things about life with you. You are my rock.

It’s sometimes hard to find the right words that sum up how I feel about you; everything feels so cliché sometimes. But I think you’ve always said it best: “If you’re the moon, I want to be the sea. You move me.” 

Love,

Your Wife of One Year (+ a week and half) 😉