Marriage.

As a child, there are things that I took for granted would happen to me: puberty, university, and marriage. Disney movies make it seem so magical and romantic. Your husband will appear magically in your life in the form of a dashing prince, a brave rescuer, or a lion. The rest is all a big "happily ever after".
Now that the other two have happened, there's just the big M left to complete this holy trinity of life. But after more years of life experience, several reality checks, and now a few weddings under my belt, I find myself walking the thin line between "two is better than one" and "marriage isn't for everyone", because both are fundamentally true, and it could end up either way.
In any case, I definitely know it's not something to just take for granted or to take lightly, especially with the way many marriages carelessly end up nowadays. In 2000, the average age of brides was 31.7. So that leaves me about 10 years for something magical to happen :)


There are a few rules I know to be true about love and marriage: If you don't respect the other person, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you don't know how to compromise, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you can't talk openly about what goes on between you, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. And if you don't have a common set of values in life, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. And the most important one of those values?
Your belief in the importance of marriage.