The smallest dreams get pushed aside while the largest ones changed my life.
Rite of Spring by Angles & Airwaves.

It’s funny – now I’m living in a city that I never thought I’d even visit and find myself unemployed, looking for freelance writing opportunities and potential full time work. It’s amazing to look back at your life and think of all the plans you had made for yourself and then see how quickly life can put you on another path. Chasing your dreams can really lead you somewhere you never expected.

In this case, I was going after my dream of falling in love, getting married, and finding that one person in the world who never fails to make me smile.

And so here I am – sitting in our little 300 sq. ft. studio that looks more like a dorm room than an apartment. I’ve always heard people say things like “We didn’t have much, but we were happy,” and now that phrase means so much more to me. It’s so wonderful to take a step back and look at everything you do and don’t need and just be able to rely on each other so fully and completely that you feel like you can make it through anything together.

Does that mean it’s easy? No. Does that mean I’m not stressed about struggling to find work? Absolutely not.

I’m just saying that sometimes you have to take risks and leaps of faith in order to follow your dreams.  I took a gigantic leap of faith in myself and in my relationship to leave my last job and move out to San Francisco to be with my fiancé – but you know what? I don’t think I’ve ever been happier.

Over the last few months I’ve seen more than a few posts pop up from Gen Y-ers regarding the institution of marriage.

I have to say, it’s been really sad for me to see how many people in Gen-Y are jaded about marriage and it makes me wonder how future generations will view it.

I can understand why people are so worried about becoming one of the statistics – that was something my fiancé was concerned with before we got engaged. To be fair – neither of us have divorced parents and our parents get along very well together, so that may have some impact on how our views of marriage evolved.

That being said, we did not rush into the decision to get engaged – in fact, we had been discussing it for over 6 months. We had purchased a book with 1000 questions to ask before we got married which made us discuss chores, money, kids, careers, insecurities, conflict management, etc.

One of the most important things we learned is that in a serious relationship you really need your partner to be flexible and willing to compromise. I think that is the foundation to a strong a relationship that will last.

My fiancé and I have been together for over 2 and a half years and have been engaged for 7 months. We’ve spent much of that time in a long distance relationship as she lives in San Francisco and I live in Austin – and it still works. We are both whole-heartedly committed to each other.

Ultimately, the reason I asked her to marry is because I cannot stand the idea of not having her in my life. So much so that if something ever happened to her, I don’t know what I would do with my life – because she is my life.

The turning point for me was one day when my mom made a simple comment, “You know Dominic, you always talk about getting engaged, but you don’t do anything about it – so I’m beginning to doubt it’ll happen.” And it hit me – there is no other person in the world I want to be with and nothing makes me happier than holding her in my arms and waking up next to her in the morning.

Falling in love was the easy part – discussing the questions and seeing the challenges we’ll be facing was difficult, but I know without a doubt in my mind there is no one else in the world I would rather have standing by my side as we face those challenges together. I think that level of commitment may be a commitment Gen-Yers are afraid to make.

All I know is that she’s strong, fiercely independent, and a little stubborn – but I love her all the more for it and I am excited out of my mind to be marrying her.

So what are your thoughts about marriage?