Day Fourteen: A Picture of Someone Without Whom Life Would Be Unimaginable

Trying to make a sentence sound (be) proper can make it rather cumbersome!  I noticed that, again, when I wrote the title to this post.  On the Thirty Day Challenge the wording is a bit more straightforward, even if the sentence ends in a preposition: "a picture of someone you couldn't imagine your life without."

There are many people who make a difference in my life.  I think that we all realize that the people who come into our lives for even a short while impact us in many ways, whether we realize it at the time or not.  It is for this reason that I spent a while pondering the person I would feature in this post: I know that my life would be different, perhaps in ways that I can't possibly imagine, had other people been the individuals with whom I interacted over the course of my life.

Family, friends, enemies, students, professors -- all have impacted my life in some way.  But the one person who has, perhaps, had the most profound impact is my Honey.

Near Taos, NM

We've known each other since high school (but I can't upload a picture of that because 1) it's too embarrassing, and 2) it was years before we even heard of digital cameras, much less owned one!)  We married a number of years after meeting, and it's been a wild ride.  We are both oldest children.  Our family backgrounds are very different.  We're both stubborn, opinionated, too smart for our own good....and we married so young so we've had to grow up together and figure out who we are.

We realize we've been pretty lucky growing and learning together because there was a chance that as we became our adults selves that we'd realize we were completely different and not compatible (a hazard of an under-30 marriage, if you ask me), but we haven't reached that point.  We've worked hard to figure out ourselves and each other.  At the end of the day, I know that there is no one for me.

We love to travel and cook and eat good food and have hobbies and interests in common.  How many people can say that?  And while we didn't have any good role models growing up, at least not the type that demonstrated what we want to be together, we are figuring things out.

Honey is very patient.  That is good.  I can be a bit crazy.  I think with my heart a bit too much (something I've grown into as I've aged), I take on the world and everyone in it, and all the while Honey is there, waiting, helping, supporting.  This summer we'll celebrate our tenth anniversary and it seems like an eternity and yet no time at all.

One time I was speaking to a student who had a rough life and she asked me about my own.  Without getting too personal, I did share some difficulties.  She asked if I would change what I had lived through and was a bit shocked when I said "No" until I explained myself.  Would I wish some of my life experiences and some of the people on anyone else?  No way!  But I like who I am and who I am becoming and every single person and experience in my life has shaped who I am today, so I don't wish for the past to change.  I like me....at least most of the time.

And yet the person who means the most to me, the one without whom life would be completely different, is still my Honey.  He has seen me at my most nerdy, most annoying, most needy, and still puts up with me.  I can't imagine my life without him...or at least not for an extended period of time.  I'll survive tonight without him: he has a work dinner and I'll be home puppy-sitting...yes, the fun never ends.