Someone once told me when I got married that it would be hard because we come from two very different families. To that I am grateful because if we came from the same family I believe that would be considered incest.
I only have 1 sibling and he has 7. He was raised a different religion than I was raised. He had lived in a different city, state, and country than I had before we were married. Parenting styles that raised us were different. Educational interests were different.
Marriage does have hard moments. Regardless of the background of each person, it can have some really rough days. That's what people need to be aware of when they get married. They need to be aware of the roses and the thorns. Wait, this is becoming a GNR song. Ick.
Redirecting thought.....I have just really enjoyed my stay in Arizona this week. I have driven down roads that reminded me of my dating years with my beau. Of the nights he would come over just because I wanted to make out. Raves. Gameworks. Getting kicked out of hot tubs. Trips. The cubby hole at the cabin. Concerts. Wally ball. The big jeep I hated to climb into and worried about how we would drive it in the winters of NY. How we had no idea the experiences ahead of us when we first held hands. The people we would encounter. The things that would make us laugh. The fights we would have. The times we would care for each other, sick on the bathroom floor. The decisions we would need to make. And there are still more ahead, so many more. It's nice to be here and take pause to reflect on how it all started on these very roads. And to know we will be back. Not today perhaps, maybe not even next year, but we both know we will be back for a good while.
We are so different today. We are very different people. A mixture of time and experience has changed us individually and as a family unit. The difference in upbringing adds a spice to the mixture that makes the other person just as simply lovely and interesting as the first day that we met.
However cliché it is, I have to admit when it's a blissfully happy marriage day, it's clear to me I would not smile as long that day if I didn't have the memories of the harder marriage days behind me. And the perspective to know they will happen again, but we will just have softer ammo.
