Very rarely do I have the chance to write something just for myself… this was one of those pieces. I didn’t intend to share it here, but after finally having our dream wedding and keeping it to myself for the last few months, I’ve decided it deserves to be displayed.
Written January, 2021
Dedicated to my loving husband, Taylor
Love is patient.
Having dated for 6 years prior to getting engaged, I thought I knew what those words meant. Taylor and I had been through a lot over those 6 years, partly because we started dating when we were young, and thus went through the normal transition of pre-adult to adult life (college, first jobs, second jobs, living separately, living together), and partly because of the unforeseen circumstances that life likes to throw at you, like health issues and the death of a loved one. After 6 years, we felt like we knew everything about each other and that included shortcomings, which we were both prepared to love and accept forever and always. But, after a nearly 15 month engagement, COVID-19 came into the picture, and we learned the true meaning of patience when we had to post-pone our wedding, not once, not twice, but three times.
Love is kind.
Experiencing COVID-19 for anyone has been taxing, but experiencing COVID-19 as a health care worker brought its own set of challenges. I went from being the “Queen of Culture” as one of my colleagues so lovingly put it, to the “Queen of COVID-19 test result reporting.” Our urgent care centers went from seeing 100s to 1000s of people seemingly overnight and I went into overdrive trying to keep up with the testing volume.
Despite what felt like my complete lack of attention to Taylor during this time, he stepped gracefully into the caretaker role. On the nights I came home exhausted and stressed out, he had dinner on the table and a hot bath drawn. Often, I would wake up to Taylor taking our fur babies out for their morning walk and glance over to see a venti cup of iced coffee (my drink of choice) on the bedside table. It’s easy to be kind to each other when everything in life is going well, and a lot harder when it feels like the world is crumbling around you, but our love… is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
When planning our first wedding, Taylor and I both went a little crazy trying to make it grand. We picked the venue with the marble floors and elegant waterwall because we wanted our wedding to be most extravagant. We looked at designer wedding shoes, wedding rings and bands, and just had to drive off to our fancy hotel room in a 1940s Bentley. I’m not going to lie and tell you that our wedding taking place in March isn’t going to include a 1940s Bentley, because let’s face it, the motto is “use it or lose all the money you put down for it.” But, we now look back and think about how silly we were to be so dead-set on making our wedding such a lavish event, when in reality, we would be happy marrying each other in our living room dressed in PJs.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly challenged us in more ways than one. With it came stress, fear, and a lot of opportunities for us to step out of our comfort zones both individually and together as a couple. Now, nearly 8 years into our relationship and less 2 months until our wedding, we are hopeful that we will officially be married in 2021 and feel ready for anything that comes our way as we embark on this journey of life together as husband and wife.