When I Knew I Wanted to Marry My Wife

I knew early in our relationship that I wanted to marry my wife and spend the rest of my life with her. She's obviously beautiful, but it was her amazing character and our friendship that solidified this choice for marriage. In other words, I'd be an absolute fool to let her go.

We started off as two friends who happened to be single, quickly progressing to talking every day after work for hours about virtually everything except sex.

We'd laugh at hilarious moments, and she might cry after opening up to me about sensitive moments in her life.

Every week night for weeks, I'd wait till 8 PM to call her and we'd talk for at least two hours. One night I talked to her till about 4 am when I was supposed to be at work at 6 am. Sure, I was exhausted, but it was worth it.

She lived a couple hours from me at the time and when we finally decided to "hang out, " our friendly dinner quickly turned into a date night dinner plus an impromptu movie afterward.

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From that moment on, we were inseparable. We were long distance, but we made it work until my lease was over and I moved in with her till we could decide where we wanted to stay at in the long term.

But I knew I wanted to marry her long before she knew this. After being in tumultuous relationships, you learn to look for character traits to avoid and not get wrapped up in emotions.

It's easy to stay with someone when things are good, but what about the arguments? How would she respond in disagreement?

I'm not a dramatic person and if there are problems, I want to resolve them and move forward. When we had our first argument, we didn't scream at each other or insult each other. She wasn't passive aggressively pretending she was fine when she wasn't.

We gave each other an opportunity to voice our perspectives without talking over each other and we found a resolution. We've been together for years and that's how all of our arguments have been because we are friends first, and you don't insult your friends.

It's easy to say you love someone, but we truly respect each other. I probably believe in her more than she believes in herself and the same for her in how she sees me.

My career successes wouldn't have been possible without my wife's constant encouragement and support.

I knew I wanted to marry Michele about three months into our relationship and I never had a hesitation to do so. No one pressured me to marry her: I just knew that she was the woman I had been waiting for my entire life for.

I've heard from other happily married men and they've all echoed something similar: They just knew. No one convinced or pressured them; they genuinely wanted it.

We're both nerds in our own ways, and laugh at goofy nonsense all the time. We have inside jokes along with a deep understanding of each other.

We don't lie to each other, so we are always brutally honest with each because we have each other's best interest at heart.

Our habit of open communication and not hiding anything from each other from the beginning as friends has remained solid for over 5 years of our relationship, 3 of them being married.

I don't just love my wife: I like her. She's my best friend and knows everything about me. We trust each other equally and I could not imagine not having her in my life.

Every day, I look forward to hanging out with my friend and it's always a special treat when we can travel together around the world. I'm incredibly lucky to have been able to marry my best friend.

Happy Valentine's Day, Michele.