Celebrating 10 Years Together: The Secret to Our Relationship Success

Today, Patrick and I celebrate TEN years of being together. Ugh, writing that sentence gives me all the feels and also makes me feel old. It also makes me think, Ten years? A decade?! Where the hell did that go? I feel like so much has happened, and yet it seems like it can’t be that long since we were living in Boulder. We were just taking the bus to Rockies games and drinking Moscow mules in copper cups at one of our favorite places in Denver, right? Or it wasn’t that long since we ate cheese curds and drank beers out of glass boots in Madison? And we haven’t been living back home in Santa Barbara that long. Just a couple of yea…what’s that? Coming up on five and a half years?! Okay, Father Time, I think you can take it easy for a bit.

If you meet your significant other at a young age, it can be challenging. I was twenty-one when Patrick and I started dating. That seems so young now. I remember when people thought it was strange that I wasn’t dating around still or having lots of early-twenties flings. As the old saying goes, when you know, you know though. I also completely understand that if I have a daughter one day and she says she’s going to marry the guy she’s dating at twenty-one that I will probably gently say, “Of course you will, Sweetheart,” while placing my bets on a breakup. The truth is that a lot happens in a…