On October 4th, I’ll have been married to my wonderful husband for seven years. In that amount of time, I’ve learned a great deal about a great many things. Here’s a list. 

1. Marriage: No matter how long you’re with someone, how much you love them, there will ALWAYS be times when you dislike them. Maybe those are brief and it probably fades. But always. 
2. Parenting: You might love your kids with every beat of your heart, but man they can drive you nuts. 
3. Money: Money is, in fact, the root of all evil. You are envious of people who have it when you don’t, and when you have a steady job, the more you make, the more you end up giving away. 
4. Work: If you love your job and can see yourself moving up, it’s a career. If you don’t, it’s work. And work is hard, so work isn’t necessarily loved. 
5. Wants: Whether you have everything you need or not, you always want more. 
6. Needs: Being thankful for having what you need, even when you don’t have everything you need, can make not having a little bit easier. Not always a lot, but a little. 
7. Charity: Helping others, whether you know the person or not, is all the more gratifying when they appreciate it. And when they don’t appreciate it, you tend to lose a little bit of faith in humanity. 
8. Faith: Having faith and being religious can be two very different things. I have faith in many things but I can’t call myself religious, because I’m not sure (even at 31) of what to believe. 
9. Rights: You have a right to be, do, think, feel, and say in all that you do. Unless it’s work, other people, or publicly related. 
10. Love: love is the greatest, kindest, least (monitarily) expensive thing you can ever give or receive. But it can also break you in many ways. 

As always, thanks for reading. 

-c