I like marriage. Sure it's not near as exciting as the single life, but mine was never that exciting to begin with. Despite some perceiving it as a negative, I like the consistency and the fact that I share my experiences with someone over the long term. We can talk about things that happened years ago instead of having to always start from scratch every few months. I'm terrible at first impressions.
Having someone there during the good times is great, but I think having someone there during the bad times is even more important. I know that if I'm sick or I get a debilitating injury, my wife will take care of me, and vice versa. The short-term girlfriend will bail. Parents get older. Siblings aren't always close (physically or otherwise).
It's not perfect, but the single life wasn't either. There were some pretty crappy and lonely moments there. I'm a pretty independent guy at heart, and can still do most of the stuff I did before. Not all, but most. My wife hasn't once complained about me getting a totally impractical car, even though that's probably a very dangerous precedent. She doesn't complain if I go on a two week trip without her, and I don't complain if she wants to go see her family for a few weeks. I think I'm pretty lucky on this front, as Ive seen a lot of women suck the life out of their men with constant nagging about what to do or what not to do.
My marriage also resulted in the cutest damn daughter in the history of the world (sorry, rest of you). Having your daughter hug you tight is probably worth any and all risk of getting married.
|