10 Years

As I write this, my wife and I have been married almost 10 years. A decade of marriage teaches you many things (humility, patience, domestic bartering) but one of the greatest things I have learned is gratitude. And it is in that spirit that I have compiled an abridged list of all the reasons I am thankful to be the husband to such a wonderful woman.

I am grateful for:

• The way you consistently look past my shortcomings even when you‘re uncertain there is anything redeeming to be found in their wake.

• Your unyielding support, even once you discovered that you were legally joined to a man that spent the better part of two hours penning an essay on when it’s acceptable to speak to another man in a public restroom.

• Your witty intelligence and the way you humbly deny its existence even to me.

• The way you can heroically feign interest when I discuss a documentary about salt mining.

• Your beautiful green eyes and the way they still remind me of the first time I looked into them.

• Your laughter, because it makes me grateful to have a sense of humor.

• The way you make me feel like less of a pansy by pretending my superficial injuries are as debilitating as I make them out to be.

• How you always ask about my day, even when I didn’t find it interesting enough to repeat.

• The way you treat my grating eccentricities as “endearing quirks.”

• Your culinary skills. Without you I would be doomed to an existence of meals that require me to “remove cellophane” before consuming.

• The fact that you can somehow embrace cynicism without missing any opportunities for hope.

• Your admirable taste in movies and music. Very rarely am I subjected to bland romantic comedies or uninspired Top 40 (your purchase of Black Eyed Peas notwithstanding.)

• Your sense of adventure, because it has prevented me from becoming a bookish miser with a ridiculously-large emergency fund.

• How you subtly you re-direct my wardrobe choices by presenting fashion hypotheticals (What if you didn’t wear an Animal House T-Shirt to the baptism….)

• The fact that you still miss me when we are apart, even if it is only for one night.

• The mother you are to our son while still finding the time and strength to be the wife you are to me.

But most of all, I am grateful that you said yes when I asked you to marry me ten years ago. Most girls dream of marrying confident, successful men whose good looks and intelligence are only eclipsed by their chiseled torsos. I, for one, am glad you set your sights a little lower. I love you.