The number one question I get: So how's married life? I'm here to give you the run-down 2 months into this new grown-up life of ours.
It's familiar and second-nature. Sometimes I look over at Bryce and it feels like I've been his wife my whole life. Waking up next to him each morning feels like the most natural thing in the world. I kept waiting for the moment when we would feel married because it is a little weird when they finally tell you that you're married and you're still the exact same people wearing the exact same thing. But eventually it comes and sometimes there are really special moments when I just look at him and really feel like husband and wife, like we've been this way forever. And it is the best to have Bryce to cuddle up to at 3am when I'm having bad dreams.
It's a little bit stressful. We didn't exactly pick a calm summer to get married. I wish there was a way to send an email to everyone who attended our wedding and say "Sorry, I started classes two days after our wedding and we're both applying to med school right now, but we're working on your thank you notes, I swear!" But between the MCAT, the OAT, physics class, work, Bryce's new job, applications, shadowing, Bermuda, and moving into our new apartment there has been so much to do! We just hit the ground running. I have a feeling we really aren't going to slow down for a long time, but I don't think we would have it any other way!
It's very very organized. I'm talking google calendar invites for grocery shopping and excel spreadsheets. It's really the only way we can get everything done and not forget anything. I think my favorite mode we have together is "game mode". We started planning our meals for the week as soon as we moved in and we went a whole month without having the same dinner twice! We haven't exactly had much down time but staying organized has really helped give us time to play. We try to have all of our studying done by 6 every night, and afterwards I go for a run and Bryce usually studies a little more. But we always always always cook dinner together. It definitely took some time to fine tune everything but we've figured a lot out. Somehow even filling out medical school applications at 2am with him is just so fun.
It's the best teacher I've had in a long time. People always tell you marriage is hard, but it doesn't really make sense until you're actually married (people always tell you that too). Being married really puts you under a microscope. It makes you feel insecure at first, but eventually you realize that this is the greatest opportunity to learn you will ever encounter. Or at least that's what I've taken from it. Somehow, quite perfectly, everything skill I want to learn and every trait I want to develop, is complimented by Bryce containing those traits and talents. Sometimes its hard to understand each other when stresses are high and life looks scary, but I've found that the more I trust him and recognize that the qualities he is exhibiting reenforce me to act as the person I want to become, life looks a little easier and a little brighter. It's a refiner's fire, but the love between us makes it seem more like a cozy winter night with hot cocoa than a blazing furnace.
It's perfect. Okay, I know marriage isn't always perfect. But there are perfect moments when we perfectly understand each other. I don't think it is that everything is going exactly right at this point in our lives, or that we're way better at being married than most people. I just think that through all the time and experiences we have together, the perfect moments outweigh all of the little stresses and worries that surround them. Sometimes I look at him and I just want to cry when the moment is so perfect and I feel such peace. The most comforting moments of my life have come from being with Bryce.
