How Time Flies

Year 1: Puppy Love.

Our first year seemed like nothing but bliss. We started doing so much together and every part of it was joyful beyond bounds. We learned so much about each other and found everything we had in common. From books, movies, and music, to cooking, the outdoors, and animals, we loved all the same things. So, we started sharing some of our favorite things with one another. We cooked together and for each other, went on aimless walks, pointed out every puppy we happened across (regardless of its age). We started watching movies and shows together, even started sharing books with each other.

We could easily consider this year the Year of Puppy Love. We were absolutely smitten and could not be told that this sort of bliss doesn’t last forever. It was impossible for it not to last. From the time we met, all the way to our first anniversary, we only got closer, only higher, elevated evermore by the love we were developing for each other. It was amazing and I couldn’t have asked for a better way to kick off our relationship. It was perfect for us.

Year 2: Terrible Twos

As perfectly blissful our first year was, at the start of our second year, the bliss seemed to come to a screeching halt. We still did everything together and were still deeply in love, but here we started to find out our differences, our selfishness started to show, and we started to fued. Beyond our relationship, we started having pressures in our personal lives, and everything that affected one, also affected the other. There were a lot of hurt feelings and even more apologies. It went like this for months.

Sounds terrible, right? We agree, wholeheartedly. Anything good come of it? Totally. We realized that, despite all of the bad, the hurt, the unexpected, we were still very much in love. Maybe the bad things that happened brought us closer. Maybe seeing the less desirable traits helped us better understand each other. Maybe it was learning to forgive each other. Maybe, it was learning to find joy in doing things one person didn’t like, because it made the other happy. Maybe it was supporting each other through their own hardships.

Likely it was all of those things and so much more. When we talked about everything that happened in that year and were still able to confess our love for one another, we realized that the meaning of the word had changed at some point, though we don't know when. It was a different kind of love; deeper, heavier, and much stronger.

In retrospect, our “Terrible Two” wasn’t all too terrible. We might even say it was perfect, if only perfect for us.

Year 3: The Yearning

The third year was more relaxing for us, than the prior two. We still had a lot of excitement and a decent amount of complications, but they weren't all too similar to our prior years.

Our third year had us spending a lot of time just enjoying each other. It was more calm than years past. When we first noticed, it was a little concerning for us. We felt weird that we weren’t overwhelmed with excitement or constantly feuding. It was weird.

But sometimes, weird isn't so bad. We explored the oddities of each other more. Spending time doing things that we didn't both love simply because the other loved it was eye-opening — there was joy to be found in doing something she liked, even if I didn't like it myself. I found myself relishing in her happiness. The amount of joy I felt in exploring her interests could only have been rivaled by the joy she felt in us exploring her interests together.

It was here that we realized that the love we felt for each other until now had again changed. It was calmer and stronger, deeper than before! It was a weird, quick year, full of relative calm and patient happiness. We might even say that it was quite perfect.

Year 4: Back to Bliss

Finally, year four. Our current year. The one that has so far been filled with an abundance of joy and love, like we hadn’t experienced before. The utter bliss we have felt has been nothing short of overwhelming, but welcome in every way. We’ve had plenty of excitement, but it was much calmer than year 1. Beyond that, there’s been much less stress than year 2 -- still some stress, but being handled better and with the confidence that we’re able to overcome whatever came our way, so long as we work together.

There was one event in particular that helped make this year one for the record books. I finally felt the time was right to act on a feeling that had been growing inside me for a while now. The feeling that she is the woman for me, the one whom I want to spend the rest of my life with! I made my proposal, as awkward as it was, and she graciously accepted. The proposal — let alone our entire anniversary trip — didn’t go as planned, but we still feel like it was nothing less than perfect, if only perfect for us.

jared deluca