Sweeter With Time

Nearly three and a half years ago, I started dating this really great guy, and at the time, I thought I was in love.  We knew each other as well as really close friends who've really only met over the internet can... and we are both very good communicators with writing, so we knew each other pretty well.  Saying yes to his "will you be my girlfriend?" letter started of a whirlwind adventure that has challenged us, changed us and brought us closer together than 19 year old me could ever have thought was possible.

We were in love then, most definitely.  It was a new love, an exciting time of butterflies and caterpillars and staying up until 1 in the morning just talking and talking and texting each other constantly and the thrill of uncharted waters.  We learned so much about each other in that first year and with each visit navigated through relationship landmarks and grew more and more comfortable with each other.

As time has gone on, we've fallen deeper in love with each visit.  We've fallen more in love with ever day.  With every celebration, with every little thing that makes us go "Gosh, I love you".   With every argument, with every tear filled night of trying to fall asleep while we're hurting.  We were in love before, but as we've grown... something has changed, as recently as just a few months ago.  

We're not in that honeymoon stage of love anymore, or of our relationship.  As we've grown and matured, our love for each other has too.  Being together is the most natural, most comfortable thing in the world.  When we're together, we don't feel like two separate people in a relationship, we feel like one unit and there is a deep sense of comfort and knowing that we just belong together.  It's as if no time has passed since we said good-bye and we are a whole person.  

Wine gets sweeter and stronger as it ages, and love is the same way.  We may have more bad days now than when we first did at the start of our relationship, but that's okay because we've learned and are learning how to get through them, and we know that if we just sit tight and wait it out, there are so many more good days on the other side.

He's the perfect man for me, I can't imagine anyone who could compliment me or challenge me or complete me better than he does.  And I know that our journey together is still very much in the early stages, but this year we've moved on to that next place in our lives together.   It's so beautiful to look back over the years and see the ways in which we've shaped each other and how we've come so close. I don't know how we could possibly love each other more, but if our time together has taught me one thing, it's that we can.