The Beginning

13 days ago, I got married. This may seem a normal sentence to most. After all, people get married all of the time, but I never intended to. Marriage was for other people - prettier people, cooler people, less-busy people. Not me. I had a life to live.

I made do with occasional boyfriends and a purpose-filled life. I ran marathons and made middle school kids smile. Who needed a husband when I could travel to the Dominican Republic instead? It always seemed to be an either/or thing. Marriage or traveling. Marriage or freedom. Marriage or happiness. It never occurred to me I could have both.

I hadn't decided against marriage - I just refused to stop my life to look for it. And I set my sights high. I demanded a man who would be my best friend, my safe place, my lover, and my companion. If I was going to give up my amazing, self-created life - it would be for something MORE than I already had. And the men I had met were definitely less.

Then I started dating The Mr. We had met years before, but now he was single and he wanted to go to dinner. I assumed he would join the long line of forgotten first dates I had accumulated. A short month later, my intuition was screaming at me that my life was on the verge of upheaval like I had never known. This man was it. He was the next step in my evolution.

And so I took a leap of faith. I put aside all the statistics and stories I know about divorce and heart break,and I committed to be his partner. I committed to learn more about love through sacrifice and selflessness. I'm going to give this everything I have. A man like him deserves that much, and so do I.