8 Benefits to Marrying Young

PHOTO CRED: Amy Parsons Photography

I fall into that group of couples who married their highschool sweethearts. [Go ahead, roll those eyeballs.] Matter of fact, it really is only by default. We were the same age, but I was a grade ahead and one of the youngest in my class. I graduated at 17. We were an unlikely pair, and no one was more painfully aware of that then me. I can't explain it, even to this day, but we drew each other in like bright lights to crane flies. It wasn't magic. It was more of a tug of war. A comincal, typical, teenage love tug of war. We never liked each other at the same time, and took two years to finally acknowledge that we were great together. To finally come to terms with what our then track coach and pole vault coach had both tried to tell us. By the time we made it official we were best friends, and in many ways an old married couple. We loved hard, and fought hard to keep that love. In college when people would hear we were married they were either in awe, or asked us how we could do that...be with one person and one person only the rest of our lives.

Here are the reasons why I am thankful I married my best friend and first love.

We were there for all the teenage awkwardness and lived to tell about it. We were gawky and immature. He was obnoxious and I was a typical teenage girl. We came into our own together and have loads of blackmail on each other to tell our children someday.

We didn't have to deal with blind dates, or horrible break ups. In fact my husband is the only person I have ever dated, and other than a couple week unofficial relationship, I am the only girl he has dated.

There was no baggage. I'm not saying I have no life baggage, because I wouldn't be human if that was the case. What I don't have is a list of guys I had slept with or been in love with. I don't have relationship baggage. There is only one, and I married him. He is my first love, and will be my last.

We learned eachother's dreams and goals and helped eachother reach them. We had many long talks about what our passions and dreams were. We learned what made eachother tick, and helped push eachother to achieve our goals. We believed whole heartedly in eachother, sometimes when no one else did. We became eachothers number one fans. Ya, I went there.

We had years to discuss what we wanted our marriage and our life to be like. We hashed out every aspect of what we hoped for in the future. For our relationship, and for our life together. We became one stubborn force working together against many odds. Instead of letting statistics or negative people discourage us, it fueled our fire. We talked about every aspect and possibilty. We didn't always agree right away, but that was okay because we had time to figure it out.

Holidays are simplified. As simplified as holiday's can be of course. We are from the same small town, so our parents live minutes away from eachother. We could spend time with both families on major holidays and bounce back and forth easily.

We have gotten to witness major life milestones for one another. We adventured a lot. Sometimes just to do things and see things one of us hadn't before. Whether it was the Grand Canyon, or Disneyland. We have had the priviledge of having so many firsts together, or creating firsts for the other person. We got married, graduated college, and started our careers. Bought our first home, and started a family. My favorite milestones have been with my husband.

We had years together before we had to be real adults. We truly lived our college years to their fullest extent. We wasted no time, and burnt both ends of the candle. We made the best friends who became our family, and created so many memories and laughs along the way. We got to have fun and be relatively worry free for years before entering the "adult" world.

#LOVE #LIFE