There's no "I" in TEAM

Soo yesterday, Michael taught me something that I had never thought about before and I felt compelled to write about it. We were discussing how difficult it is to be newlyweds and have him in such a demanding graduate program. I always pictured our first years of marriage (the "honeymoon phase") being full of spontaneous dates and new adventures, but that's not quite exactly how it's turned out.

With only being able to see him for about 15-30 minutes a day, half of which is spent when he sings me a song before I go to bed, right before he returns to his studies until about 2am, our growth has primarily come through the trials we face, instead of all of the fun new memories we've been making together. Not that we haven't made any fun memories since being married, but our time is so limited, we don't have any time to go on quick day trips to other towns just to get away, or even a simple dinner and movie. Mostly, we stay close by continually encouraging eachother through these difficult times and reminding eachother that things will get easier; and eventually all this hard work and limited time together will be worth it, when he has a job he loves which will allow the financial freedoms to experience many things we only dream of now.

Yesterday I was feeling a little down because of how little time I've spent with Michael, and he held me close and reminded me "this is just a small bump in the road, on the way to success". I told him I know and told him I feel bad for even feeling down about it because he's the one that has to study like 18 hours a day, which is way harder on him. His response was "it's not about what I have to do and what you have to do; if it's hard on one of us, it's hard on both of us. When you are feeling neglected ecause I don't have the time to offer you that you need, it hurts me too." This is when I realized he was right. All this time I've thought of ourselves as complete individuals. Yes, we're married, but I still categorize the things that I do versus the things that he has to do. This thinking is all wrong. We're a team now, and my job as his wife isn't just do get the things done that I've deemed as the wifes job; I'm also responsible for trying to make my husband feel loved and content, because when he's happy is when i can be most happy.

I am so thankful for a husband that opened my eyes to this. I love you, sweetheart!