A Few Thoughts From Year 10.

It has been interesting looking back over the past ten years that Jared and I have been married. Our memories are such an odd thing. In some ways, different periods of time in our marriage have appeared to be like phases. At this time, we are in the phase of raising our children, and in this phase, it is hard to remember what it was like before having kids. I think it is important to remember different phases of our life together, because each moment has brought us to where we are at and who we are together today. Jared and I started dating in 2000. There was something carefree about Jared that I found interesting and it kind of drew me in. He was funny and incredibly persistent in his pursuit of my attention. That persistence has been a repeated factor in many of my memories of us together. The thing I remember most about the first 11 months, which was the span of our dating relationship, was that I had so much fun with Jared. We would go rock climbing at the U of W, go to coffee in random parts of the city in the middle of the night, that now I would carry hand sanitizer or a gun if I went to those locations and many other things that required an element of silliness. We were inseparable, which made people love or hate our relationship. At this point in my life, I have started to look at things through a risk lens. Making a decision to marry someone is truly a risky thing. How much do you really know someone in such a short amount of time? What if that person changes? In your youth, do you even know the right questions to ask? I look around at so many men and realize that finding Jared was nothing short of a miracle. In my early 20s, I was so naive and trusting. I don't give myself enough credit to have found someone as incredibly perfect for me as Jared. We are so different than each other, but in all the areas that matter, we are so much the same. To be continued...