"Promise Me."

Back when I was planning my wedding in 2009, I was obsessed with wedding blogs.  I remember coming across a post on one wedding blog (which doesn't even exist anymore) that really made me stop and think.  I copied the text in the post and saved it because I thought it was really important advice.  Somehow I came across this saved post again recently.  As I was rereading it today, now over 2 years into our own marriage, I find it more relevant than ever.

Here's the blog post I saved back in 2009 from that wedding blog:

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Last night, I ran into a professor I have crossed paths with over the years at the university I work with.  He is a quirky, thoughtful, poem-emailing literature professor, probably in his mid-sixties, who lets long pauses happen in the middle of conversations.  I don't see him very often, but have been given very weighty topics to think about every time I do.  The last time I saw him was over a year ago.  I was walking with some co-workers to get lunch, and he was walking in the opposite direction, and I waved, and he called out, jokingly, "Why don't you get married and change your last name so I can finally pronounce it?"  (Like I said, quirky.)  To which my response was to hold up my left hand, since I had gotten engaged only a week earlier.  His eyes got very wide, and he gave me a congratulatory hug, and then told me that his wife had passed away from a long battle with cancer... a week earlier.  When I asked him why he was already back at work, he said he didn't know what else to do.  And then he looked at me very seriously and said:

"My best marriage advice for you is to never, ever put off what you want to do.  No matter how good the excuses seem, or how little money you have, or how practical it would be to wait - don't wait.  Travel, move, experience new things together, and do them right away.  Don't ever put these things off.  Promise me."

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Time really does fly and you need to stop and put things into perspective every once and a while or else years might pass by before you know it.  I'd like to think that Brett and I do a good job of living our lives the way we want to and doing things that make us happy.  This is just a really good reminder to make sure we continue to live that way together and taking advantage of every opportunity that comes our way.  No regrets.