He has 7 more weeks of training before his "real" schedule begins, so we get to enjoy an actual 2 day weekend for 7 more weeks. We don't even know what to do with ourselves. I keep researching day trips to take, but by the time the weekend rolls around all we want to do is collapse on the couch and not move until Sunday.
Plus, we can't really go too far from home because of aforementioned high-maintenance dogs. I still haven't met someone capable of handling their extreme levels of high-maintenance.
Although they do seem to like my sister... maybe I can bribe her with Red Vines.
And books.
This year has been a growing experience, that's for sure. Not only have we moved cross-country (positive), undergone two major job changes in two months (positive-negative...can you say just plain stressful?!), but we're also coming up on our second year of marriage.
Which means that we've almost survived two years of figuring out this thing called marriage without killing each other.
Or severely damaging each other's morale. I'd say that's a win-win situation.
Seriously, though... marriage? It's hard. Not only is there no in-depth, step-by-step instruction manual for every possible scenario, but there are close to a million opinions and perspectives that can leave you scratching your head for days wondering how that was supposed to help.
And the movies? Marriage is nothing like you see in the movies. Real-life marriage is messy and raw. It's about making sure that you take the time to think about the other person in every situation and learning to not be so selfish. It's about compromise and "I'm sorry". It's about joining together two very different people (with two very different backgrounds) for the sake of one cause.
It's about dying to yourself and loving the other person even though they breathe loudly.
Not that that's an issue.
I've learned a lot about life in the past (almost) two years of marriage. I've learned that life is not always fair and sometimes you just really don't need to "win" that argument. I've learned that more often than not, the best reply is silence (not the silent treatment kind... the "I really want to tell you exactly what I'm thinking but I won't because I love you and I won't feel that way tomorrow" kind). I've learned that two people can conquer anything when they are united and don't let outside influences sway them.
And there are a lot of influences that want to sway. Some well-meaning, some not.
The most important thing I've learned about marriage is that it can only survive with a whole lot of prayer. Because even the most promising, well-meaning marriages can fall short. Even the most grounded and secure couples can give a little to outside influences and watch their marriages crumble. I've seen it, and I've felt it happen even in our short two years.
Every so often, we get comments about being married so young. We get the "why would you want to throw your life away already?" questions and the "it's not going to last" comments. We get the looks, and we get the lectures from older generations about how awful marriage really is. We get all of that, but it's not what we hold onto.
What we hold onto are the stories of people just like us. People in real-life, messy marriages. People who realize that marriage is hard but wouldn't trade it for anything. The people who look at us and remember what it was like when they were young and in love.
Those are the people we listen to. Those are the people who inspire us.
Because in the end, it's not about an age or particular milestone passed. It's not about what your family says or what society thinks. It's about love and commitment. It's about knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that your life is better because that person is in it
And it's about not getting mad when they drink too loudly...or when their dog is just a little too high maintenance.
