Thursday, November 6, 2008

The quarter life crisis

Last December, I turned 25. It's been almost twelve months, and it's funny how life can be turned upside down so quickly. The funny thing is, I say that like it was a big surprise, but all the things that have gone wrong are the result of my own doing. So maybe I should say: it's funny how many things you can screw up in just twelve months.
I now find myself in the middle of a marriage that is breaking down, and full of nothing but questions and uncertainties about the life I have lived up to this point. I can tell you the story of how I got to this place, but I can only speculate about where it will go from here.
I got married too young. Many factors were involved in the decision to rush things along (no kids, though, I know what you're thinking) but it really was what I wanted at the time. My husband is almost 10 years older than me. The first year of our marriage was challenging, but nothing I would call out of the ordinary. He is a truly kind-hearted person, and I was attracted to his hopeless romanticism and idealistic view of life. We were in a long distance relationship before we married, and as much as I thought I knew him, I didn't.
The first few years of our marriage were good. We bought a house and settled into our life, but soon differences in where we wanted things to go emerged. He wanted kids, I didn't. He wanted to move to California, I didn't. He was a relentless penny pincher, I wanted to spend money and enjoy life. He was into yoga, mediation, and 80's music; I was into running marathons and going out with friends. I guess I slowly realized how different we were. In some ways we really complimented each other, but I guess that isn't enough to keep a marriage together. I started to feel restless and suffocated. I felt like I had to take care of him and do everything for him and it weighed me down.
We had gone through difficult periods before, and always came out of them on our own. I guess that I believed that this most recent difficult period would be the same way, but it wasn't. I'll save that story for another day.
Right now, I'm just trying to process everything. Tonight we're starting the paperwork. Thankfully, in my state, we have no-fault divorce. Divorce - now that's a word I never thought I'd use in my life.

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