When my husband and I got married I was nineteen. I never once thought that was crazy and I never once thought that I was too young to get married. I knew that this guy in my life was the one God sent for me, and I knew although he was far from perfect, he was perfect for me in every way.

I will never forget the day we got married. It was a beyond wonderful day spending it with my best friend by my side. But one thing I sadly will always remember about the day was when we arrived at our honeymoon hotel. We were checking in and there was a couple waiting right next to us. Obviously they could tell we had just gotten married from our attire and they proceeded to tell us that we had made the worst decision in our lives. We weren’t even sure how to respond to a comment like that being freshly married. I wish I could talk to that couple now though. I wish I could tell them how I feel like marrying this guy has been one of the best decisions I ever made.

I’ve also gotten that look many times. You know, the look you get when someone finds out you were only nineteen when you got married. This look says you’re crazy, what were you thinking, and do you know how much life you missed out on?

I wonder exactly how much I have missed out on?

I never lived on my own. Maybe this is why I can’t stand to be alone to this day, I’ve never had to be! I graduated High School when I was 17 and went straight to college and lived with four amazing ladies. My second year of college I had the privilege to live with another three amazing ladies. Then I got married. You know what never living on my own has done in my marriage? It never really gave me a chance to develop my way of doing things. There wasn’t a certain way I always had to have my kitchen. There wasn’t a way I had to have my living room. I didn’t have all these ways just set in my mind that I had to break when my husband and I got married. Getting married young we had the opportunity to create our way of doing things together. We both never really chose a layout of a home before, we didn’t have ways we thought it had to be done, so we did it together.

I had my entire life ahead of me. Sure, I had SO much time ahead of me. I was young, still in college, freshly out of High School, why would I want to miss out on the best years of my life? So why not spend those best years with my husband? I have my entire life ahead of me and I get to spend it with my best friend. I get to learn about him, I get to make memories with him, I get to build a family with him, and I have the rest of my life to do just that. There’s no time wasted here, but time well spent.

I missed out on heartache from exploring other relationships. Something I hear often is how much I missed out on really exploring other relationships, especially when it came to intimacy. But I would like to argue here that it’s way better being able to explore life with just one person….especially when you have your whole life ahead of you! And I don’t have to bring all my exploration into the relationship that matters the most to me. I didn’t miss out on anything here, except for maybe heartache.

I missed out on discovering who I was. That is who I thought I was. Marriage has this way of really bringing out who you really are. All those selfish tendencies, those bad attitudes, that character you wish you never really discovered all seems to find it’s way out in marriage. You get to figure out who you are entirely, every little bit of you. I learned so much about myself those first few years of marriage and I continue to learn so much more. I’m discovering more and more about who I am on a daily basis, and getting the chance to be the best person I can be.

As you can tell, I’ve missed out on a lot getting married at nineteen. But I think we can all agree I probably would have rather missed out on it anyways. Being married at nineteen is something I would never go back and change. What’s better than spending your life with your best friend?