Kyle Hepp

August 20, 2008

I’m making my way through the list of suggested topics from all of you who took the survey. Apparently a lot of you people want S. to be more of a recurring character on the show rather than just a one time guest star. He is a pretty funny guy. Truth be told I could probably do a daily post on ridiculous things he says. But, in general, I try keep our relationship off the blogs because I would never want somebody to google him, somehow find this blog, and use anything that I write against him. After all, he’s not the one putting his life online for the world to see. It’s my choice, not his. That’s why he is referred to S. and not his full name.

And several others suggested that I write more about life as a newlywed. So I guess that goes along with the subject of S. since I wouldn’t be a newlywed without him.

Truth be told, life as a newlywed isn’t that much different than when we were dating, because we were dating with the intention of getting married practically from the beginning. We did marry very young, but both of us were fully aware of what we were getting ourselves into. I’ve always been a person who knows what I want and knows what’s best for myself and S. is the same way. Neither of us had any reservations about marriage.

The first year of marriage was like being on a boat in wicked storm. Our boat almost turned over a time or two but throughout it all we could see a calm horizon waiting for us just over the next wave. And I think that’s how we got through it, but knowing that smooth sailing was ahead. We knew that making it through the storm would be worth it. External pressures really put a strain on our relationship that year — living with S.’s parents, I couldn’t find a job, S. was working insanely long hours.

This year all of those external pressures are no longer upon us and plus we’re also coming up on 4 years of knowing each other (and being together). This year we understand each other and communicate with each other better than we did the year before, or three years before. I’m not the same person I was 4 years ago, not even close. Neither is he. I think a lot of young marriages may struggle because you change so much as a person at this time in your life. But, S. and I have done a good job in growing together and understanding the changes in the other.

I tied the knot 3 days before I turned 23 and a lot of people said, “You’re way too young to get married!” I never thought of that way. To me, meeting the love of my life at such a young age has been an amazing experience. This way we have more years of life to spend together! Being married at this age isn’t holding me back from doing anything I want to do. On the contrary, the things I want to do will be enhanced because I’ll have my husband at my side while I’m doing them.

I’m still not saying, “I told you so,” to the people who told me I shouldn’t get married while still in my early twenties. We haven’t even been married for two years. It’s a little too early to start crowing just yet. And I won’t say we’ll never get a divorce, because I believe in never say never. You just don’t know what life will throw your way. But I will say that S. and I are rock solid. I feel pretty damn good about our chances.

This is probably the most I’ll ever write directly about my relationship on this blog, unless we have a big fight pertaining to cultural differences or something funny happens to us (and aside from the post I’ll be writing on Friday about Chilean men). I’m not a very sentimental person and when I try to write anything about my husband it usually just comes out sounding cheesy. Some people have a knack for writing about their lives and their relationships and making their posts about those topics beautiful and interesting. My knack isn’t it that area. If I tried to write every day about S. and our relationship all the posts would read something like,

Woke up. I love S. I missed him while he was at work. We talked on the phone ten times. He came home and I was happy to see him. Then the next day I woke up and guess what. I still love S. And I still missed him while he was at work…

Yeah, you can see where that’s going.

So since you guys asked for it, I’ll try to mention relationship/S. related things in more posts, but only if they pertain to the topic at hand. If this blog became a written soap opera of the (lack of) drama in my life, it would get pretty boring.

PS. Ok, due to lack of better topics suggested, the topic we are going to group blog on is Chilean men if you want to participate (or foreign men if you’re not in Chile and would like to do a post on the a different breed of the male species). I was thinking I’ll post my post on Chilean men on here on Friday with links to all your posts. Does that work? If there’s a better way to do this feel free to mention it (*ahem, HEATHER — this whole thing was your idea and we haven’t heard one peep out of you!).