Newlywed Year
Recently, BJ and I celebrated our one-year anniversary! We lived out most of our newlywed year during a pandemic! The whole quarantine period brought a whole new meaning to quality time. Nonetheless, we made it, made it through our first year of marriage without killing each other! Haha!
Oh the joys of being engaged, then planning your wedding, and next is the big day, but what comes after that is a little thing called marriage. BJ has been my person for over a decade! Yes, we dated for twelve years before we said I do! He’s my high school crush and he’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.
For six years I lived by myself in Charlotte and I would be lying if I said living with a man wasn’t a rude awakening. I’m a neat freak to my core and well the hubs he’s getting on board with that, slowly but surely. Which brings me to my first reflection about year one as a married couple… learning to let go. For me its letting go of my old life, which was perfectly neat and tidy! It means loosening my control freak reins and consulting my other half first. I’m a work in progress and that’s marriage in a nutshell, a work in progress.
Social media, the place you visit to see highlight reels of the people that you think are cool. Marriage on the other hand is not a highlight reel; it’s a rollercoaster ride. Much like a rollercoaster ride marriage has highs and lows, good times and bad times. Rollercoaster’s are also scary and thrilling at the same time. I feel that way about marriage. The big steps that come after marriage are sometimes scary but they are also exciting and life changing. Change is inevitable in a marriage, and I’m finding that you just gotta roll with it.
A very wise person once told me that marriage is not 50/50, it is 100/100. I looked at marriage in a new light after that advice. I wanted to give the best version of myself to BJ and expect nothing in return, that’s what love is all about.
I’ll be the first to admit marriage is tough at times, but it’s also the best partnership I’ve ever entered. I have someone on my team and someone to help carry the load when the going gets rough. I’m totally a rookie at this marriage thing, and even after thirteen years together we are still learning odd things about one another! That’s the thing though, we are learning and growing together!
Here’s to all the newly engaged couples & newlyweds of 2020. What a year this has been!! If we can make it through our first year of marriage during a crazy pandemic, then pretty sure we can make it through anything!
Photography: facebook.com/halstonphotography
