Today Tate and I are celebrating our 5 year wedding anniversary. Five years of marriage is a notable enough event but it doesn’t even begin to tell the story of us.
Our story really started 14 years ago, when we were both working as whitewater raft guides in West Virginia. Once we started getting to know each other our attraction was immediate, strong, and deep. We tried to play it cool and casual for a few years, dating other people and living in different states for part of the time, but eventually we acknowledged the truth; this was for real.
By 2001 we were both looking to move out of West Virginia, I wanted to pursue a degree in dance and Tate wanted to ski and go back to school. After debating Boulder (my idea) and Portland (his idea) we settled on Salt Lake City. It was a perfect compromise; the University of Utah has one of the best modern dance programs in the country and the Wasatch Mountains catch world-class snow.
The first winter we lived in Utah Tate proposed to me on New Year’s Eve. We borrowed a snow mobile and rode to the top of a mountain. It was snowing lightly and just before midnight Tate delivered the most beautiful, heart felt proposal. Honestly, I was shocked. I managed a yes sometime in the next 24 hours and we both agreed it would be a while before the wedding.
I’m not the most traditional gal. I was madly in love with Tate and knew that he was what I wanted but I was a little on the fence about marriage. I wasn’t sure it was necessary for me. We are not religious and I didn’t have an attachment to the institution of marriage. I was, and still am, disturbed by how completely intertwined religion, government, and marriage are in the United States. Not to mention equal rights. I used to half-joke that we would get married when same-sex marriage is legalized. (I am not bashing religion or it as vital aspect of marriage for some but that is not my belief system so I am merely saying that a religion didn’t play into my desire to marry.)
In the end, I’m a hippocrite because as soon as I joined the married club, I loved it. It is different to be married, partly because of how society sees you and your relationship but also because it enhanced and deepened something between Tate and I, something real and beautiful and intimate.
We’ve had many adventures together and experienced great joy and a few sorrows, five years is notable but really just the beginning.
Over the course of our relationship we’ve had 11 homes (does an old school bus count as a home?), driven across the country 3 times, graduated college (twice for Tate!), had 4 cats and 3 cars and 7 roommates, worked more odd jobs than deserve mention, traveled to two dozen countries, lived abroad, lived in 4 U.S. states, bought a house, started a clinic, welcomed nieces and nephews into the world, created community, and become family.
{There are a few more wedding pictures in last years anniversary post! 🙂 }
