Collin and I

May 17, 2009 - 12:14 PM

Humm....I felt like I had something important to tell you, but now I can't remember.

Oh yes! (I sat here looking at the screen for a moment before finally realizing what I wanted to say).

It was that a few weeks ago, Collin and I finally told our families that we want to get married-with an emphasis on "after grad school" so as not to give any of our parents a hernia.

And surprisingly enough, they were all really happy about it.

All of the women were like, "Uh yeah! Duh!," which was cute because I felt special that they had already been considering such a wonderful event!

After my dad had determined that I was being reasonable and planning my life well, he was so enthusiastic about it that he started asking me what kinds of rings I liked!

One of the best parts of this, aside from the fact that my boyfriend is the best friend I have ever had, which is saying something because I am prone to tight-knit friendships, and that he is the most wonderful person in my world, is that my dad loves Collin. I mean LOVES.

When I call my dad, he always wants to talk to Collin and when they hang up, my dad tells him that he loves him. It is remarkable how wonderful it feels to have the two most important people in your life care about each other so much.

Collin and I thought we knew that we were going to get married after three months of dating, but now that it has been almost two years, we know that those initial feelings were more than just puppy, summer love.

It is so strange to have someone that I want to spend the rest of my life with because my family was so disjointed while I was growing up. Marriage never seemed like a good, workable idea. It always seemed like a lie to me, but now that I am older, and after having been to the treatment center for troubled teens, I can recognize what is going to make our marriage work.

First of all, it will be love. Unfortunately, I have never really seen, firsthand, a loving marriage. But Collin and I have a real, true, deep love, that is young in spirit and mature in practice. We are silly, we play, and we tease each other all the time. But when things get hard, the commitment and willingness to make positive changes are what keep us together.

This combination of youthfully spirited love and mature, committed love are what will take us through our lives together.

Neither of us is religious, but we both approach marriage in the "until death do us part" mindset. The most important things to me are integrity and commitment, and I think that committing to be together "for better or worse," especially "worse," is what makes marriages work. But I think that the desire to make it work through the "worse" comes from real love.

So, there it is: the great news! We were worried that people would think that we are too young, which may be, but the response that followed our announcement was a confident one. I think our families recognize the qualities in our relationship that will carry us through our lives together, which is a magnificent sign!