One year and Six

A year ago my spouse and I got married.  5 years before that, almost to the day, we started dating. I always liked the conincidence of the anniversaries -- having them together like that serves, in my mind,to make them seem more contiguous, as though getting married was another step in the relationship we already had, not something new.

I  felt that way before the wedding and looking back on it, a year later, I was right.  I suspect its the typical experience of people my age, but moving in together was a bigger change than marriage was, in and of itself (partially because we moved in together with an intention of marrying soon if things worked out).  I still count from when we started dating -- not when we got married, so for me the clock stands at 6 years, not 1; to do otherwise seems to disrespect what went before.  Maybe in 10 years I'll only mark our years of marriage.  For now, I'll have two anniversaries, one day apart.