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Musings of this paper's editor
One day I was a writer, the next day I was the editor of the nation's first successful, widespread community journalism newspaper--The Northwest Voice. Writing has always been my passion, and I had contributed upwards of 60 submissions before I became editor. Now, I'm basking in my good fortune and loving every minute of compiling what I believe are masterpieces of unpracticed, non-professional, straight-from-the-heart journalism.

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Dana Martin
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Today, I awoke to find a "Venti Peppermint Mocha" on the breakfast bar, along with a Starbucks gift card and a note from my husband.  It is our 19th wedding anniversary.

Nineteen years with the same person.  That's longer than kids go to school from kindergarten through college.  I have now lived with my husband as long as I lived with my parents.  Even better: I now have been with him half of my life.

It got me thinking about marriage, and why people stay married for so long when it seems more the norm to get divorced. 

Getting married at 19 years old means that a child married a child.  How many 19-year olds are capable of making short term decisions (about college, a car, finances, etc.), much less lifetime decisions?  We had everything going against us from the beginning, except love, which we had aplenty.  But after a few years, we became adults and weren't the same people we were on our wedding day.  Therein lies the problem, and the reason, as I see it, why so many people get divorced.

No matter how in love a couple is when they wed, problems inevitably arise by their 7th or 8th anniversary.  The easy way to deal with those problems is to get a divorce; the harder way is to stay together and realize that the problems are the natural speed bumps in a marriage, the "So you think you're tough enough to be married?" test that we all must endure--like boot camp for married people, where only the strong survive.

I guess I made the vow early in my marriage that I would be a survivor.  Luckily, my husband must have made the same vow.

We both had good examples.  His parents just celebrated their 50th anniversary; my parents were married for 44 years before my dad passed away.

The benefits of a long marriage outweigh the disadvantages.  We like the same movies, eat the same types of food, we share the same history, we have the same kids, who will bring home their own kids to us--the couple who wrestled their way to their 19th wedding anniversary. 

And he also knows what I like from Starbucks.  I knew he was a keeper.

 

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Topics: Marriage, Anniversary, starbucks
posted by sunnica on Monday, December 10, 2007 at 10:59 AM
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