When your marriage becomes a teenager

I remember being a teenager. I had the horrific glasses, braces and bad hair combination that I was always terrified I’d see broadcast as the poster child for the 80’s on Facebook.

Becoming a teenager was not my favorite life event.

But this past week the hubby and I reached the 13 year mark in our marriage and I think it’s been my favorite year so far. (Do me a favor and knock on something wood now for my superstitious soul, thank you very much.) It’s been a crazy year full of new things: the boys started and finished kindergarten, we took on the cabin project, my sis had her twins and I’m starting to figure out what I want to do with my life now that I have a bit more time.

But at 13 years married, it’s nice knowing that the hubby and I can tackle most things that come our way.  It’s fun that we’ve learned how to be grown ups together and it’s comforting knowing how far we’ve come since our first home in a possum-infested apartment in the middle of a desert years ago.
Grown-up me can admit now that back then I was a little scared that maybe we wouldn’t make it this far.

That maybe we’d have to give up and call our parents and have them bail us out and bring us back to the comforts of our childhood homes.

But no one gets anywhere being comfortable.

And we’ve learned a lot in our years-in our mistakes and our successes. And I can’t imagine our adventures any other way.

I guess we’re really on our way in this “growing old together” journey.  For our 13th anniversary, we didn’t really know what to do to celebrate but it’s fitting that we ended up spending it flying high through the air on a zipline on a spur of the moment trip to Whistler.

Ages ago, we did the same thing when we got engaged.

Except back then we didn’t have helmets or nearly as much safety gear.  (I think the guide that set up the zipline might have even swam across the river and scaled up the tree.  These details get hazier and more outrageous every year that goes by…)

We look like a bunch of crazy kids back then.

Maybe we were braver then.

And maybe things are safer now.

Or maybe it’s time that helps you realize that things usually turn out okay.

Yes, this time around, I really love being a teenager.

(And dear real teenage self….now on top of the glasses, teeth that might one day need a 2nd round of braces and bad hair, there are wrinkles, grey hairs and stretch marks too……)

(And dear hubby, I hope we’re ziplining together in another 13 years and in another 13 and another.  I’m so thankful for this adventure.  I’m thankful for all our days.  And I wouldn’t be able to zipline at all if you weren’t there with me.)

Terumi

Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys.  She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live.  She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)