To Be My Husband's Wife: Part 3

Read parts one and two of my story if you haven't already.

As I fell deeper and deeper in love with my childhood friend, I was also starting to notice that there were quite a few people around me that had happy marriages.

People like my grandparents, who have such a tender relationship. My grandma had never gone to college, had raised four children and stayed home the whole time. She was always happy to have her family around, and very content to be "at home." I never had the feeling that she had "wasted her life" by choosing to marry and stay home with her children. In fact, I benefited directly from her choice and wouldn't have had it any other way.

Then there were people like the Smalleys, longtime family friends. These two (grandparents themselves) were passionate (and even inappropriate) in mixed company and alone. They too had married young, and were still very very in love after decades together. He was her biggest fan, through thick and thin. They "got" each other.

What would it be like to go through life with someone who was always on your team? To have the comfort of a constant companion, someone who would challenge me and help me to grow, but above all would love me?

I began to consider that maybe, just maybe, I didn't have it all quite figured out at the ripe old age of twenty. Maybe these two things, being successful and being married weren't incompatible. Maybe marriage wasn't something that held you back, but rather something that could help you go even farther. I began to acknowledge the fact that I did indeed want to marry this man, and have a home together. When he proposed, I said yes, and I figured the rest would work itself out.