The beauty (and comedy) of sticking together through all seasons

Let me be clear: long-term love is not for the faint of heart. It’s for the stubborn. The slightly delusional. The wildly optimistic. And the ones who know that choosing each other daily is sometimes more like saying, “Fine. But I’m still mad and you breathe too loud.”

And yet… here we are. Still loving each other, still laughing, still threatening to throw each other’s favorite snacks in the trash during arguments. #Growth.

💛 Chapter One: Young and Dumb (But Cute)

Once upon a time, we were freshly in love. We thought forever would be easy because we liked each other. We believed our shared taste in movies and a mutual obsession with queso meant we were soulmates. And listen, maybe we were.

But nobody told us that soulmates still argue about thermostats, directions, or how to load a dishwasher correctly. (Spoiler: It’s my way.)

We were learning how to be adults and partners at the same time. And let me tell you, it’s hard to build a life with someone when you’re both still figuring out how to build Ikea furniture without filing for divorce.

😳 Chapter Two: Real Life, Real Bills, Real Loud Chewing

Fast forward to the “we have a mortgage, mismatched socks, and laugh at our own inside jokes like old people at Cracker Barrel” era.

This is the season where love stops looking like fireworks and starts looking like someone saving you the last piece of pizza. Or texting to make sure you made it home safe. Or silently refilling your coffee before you even ask.

But it’s also the season where you find out just how differently two people can live. I’m talking toothpaste habits, snoring levels, and the shocking realization that one of you is a night owl and the other is a human sunrise.

We bicker. We get on each other’s nerves. We give the silent treatment. (Okay, I give the silent treatment. He just turns up the TV.) But we always come back to each other.

Because we figured out something important:

You don’t have to agree on everything to respect each other.

You don’t have to always be in sync to stay in step.

And sometimes, love looks like letting them win the remote battle because you know they’ve had a day.

😂 Chapter Three: The Comedy of Commitment

You cannot live this closely with another human for this long without witnessing some truly humbling moments. I have seen this man sneeze five times in a row while trying to floss. He has seen me have a full meltdown because we were out of shredded cheese.

We’ve had arguments that started over something small and snowballed into dramatic Oscar-worthy speeches. (“You never appreciate the emotional labor I put into picking the takeout place!”)

But laughter always pulls us back in.

We laugh when we’re tired. We laugh when we’re broke. We laugh when things get too serious because honestly, sometimes you have to. Humor is the duct tape of our marriage — not always elegant, but it holds everything together.

🌱 Chapter Four: Seasons Change, So Do We

We’ve walked through seasons of stress, celebration, grief, growth, and glorious boredom. Some years felt like a sitcom. Some felt like a survival show.

But the key to making it through? We let each other change.

The person I married isn’t the exact person I share a home with today. And thank God, because neither am I. We’ve both had to evolve — as individuals and as a team.

We’ve re-learned each other again and again. And that’s what long-term love is: a series of reintroductions. A thousand tiny decisions to stay — even when it’s hard, even when it’s quiet, even when it would be easier to retreat.

💬 Chapter Five: The Unsaid Things

No blog post can truly capture what it’s like to look at someone who’s held your hand through hospital rooms, celebrated your weirdest wins, or brought you snacks during your emotional meltdowns without being asked. (Give that man a medal.)

There are sacred, tender things that only the two of us will ever know. The tiny rituals. The unspoken cues. The shared glances across a crowded room that say, “We’ve got this. I’ve got you.”

💌 Final Thoughts (and a Few Warnings)

If you’re looking for a fairy tale, keep scrolling. But if you’re looking for real love — the kind that gets messy, the kind that requires grace, grit, and a group text of memes to survive — this is it.

We still love each other without losing our minds because:

• We laugh more than we argue.
• We apologize even when it’s awkward.
• We remember we’re on the same team — even when we disagree about literally everything else.
• We keep choosing each other.

And on the days it feels hard? We don’t give up. We just give each other a little space, a snack, and maybe a passive-aggressive comment to keep it spicy.

Forever is funny. And we’re in it for the laughs.

Love you anyways,

Natalie