Anniversaries

   As of this past week, Michael and I have been together for three years and married for six months. They say the first year of marriage is the hardest but when you're in a shitty town and everyone around you seems to be having marriage trouble in some way you realize one of the only good things you have is each other.
   Michael asked me out June 22nd at around 2am at my cousins house. There was booze involved, that's for sure. We were sitting outside on the porch, and he asked me how to say girlfriend in Spanish. Novia. I already knew what he was going to say but he slowly put the words together in a sentence. It was silly and cute and even after some of the drama we'd already gone through I wanted to say yes so I did.
   We got mixed reactions, of course. And I don't think anyone, including myself, thought we'd end up growing so gracefully and starting a life together. But it was so worth sticking through it and getting past my initial fears of being just another girl in his life.
   I think without the army situation though, we might not have made such a decision. We got to a point in our relationship in 2010 when one of us needed to do something big with our life and get out of the huge rut we'd found ourselves in. He was going to be away and neither of us knew for how long at that point. It was a big scary thing, but somewhere along the way we both decided we didn't want to be without each other no matter what happened.
   I questioned things every step of the way. I was always worried he didn't actually want to be with me, that kind of thing. But Michael was always helping me through my insecurities. We formed a trust we'd never had before. Through our letters, we reached a level of communication we'd never experienced before. It was completely and entirely worth it, because we both wanted it and we both did anything to make it work.
   I can honestly say we haven't had any major fights here. Neither of us has ever slept on the couch out of anger. We have our tiffs over stupid things but we're quick to clear it up and get over it. Some of the couples here have told us how good we are together, and I can't help being proud. It's been obvious since we got here that we have a really really good thing. There are a lot of army couples here that got married on a whim, didn't know each other for long, or stayed together for all the wrong reasons.
   But I have my best friend. We know everything about each other, the good and the bad. We want the same things, we have a great foundation of friendship, and I couldn't possibly see myself with anyone else. In the long run, this is only the beginning. So I hope to have many more anniversaries to come with this perfect guy for me.