6/5/2025. #133

Just the prompt tonight. It's almost Friday. >today's mood.

#133 - Describe the early part of your married/life partner relationship. Alternative. Did you ever live with another adult, or are you a lone wolf, and why? What were your favorite and least favorite things about this living situation?

Well, I'm divorced and single. Only been married once and even as I sit here, I couldn't even say with any certainty how long that marriage lasted. I was that checked out by the end. The beginning was charming though. Okay, it's possible for me to do math. 18 years.

As an 18 year old - I ran away and got married to my 19 year old boyfriend. My parents disowned me for attending college. His family was disappointed in him for joining the Marines. All we had was each other. Strangely enough we both ended up dropping out from those paths. Trade school was a better option. It's hard to describe what two determined people who survived poverty are capable of in life. We had goals. We were best friends with skills that complemented each other.

Background early marriage - we were poor. Had nothing. Both workaholics though. We had that going for us and it eventually destroyed us. Jake and Julia were not born until we had been married for 7 years. Those early years, it was just us. We spent most of that time in school, working and the gym. We were very practical responsible people. We were driven, not much time or money for vacations or things like that. We were married teenagers who were able to buy a brand new home in rural suburbs by the ages of 20 and 21. We valued long term security.

It took a lot of sacrifice but honestly those kinds of personalities and combined work ethic - was the perfect environment to handle the crisis of Jake and Julia's complicated medical conditions.

I loved being married and being in a partnership but our life missions did not align. I wanted/needed to take on a more active advocacy role for caregivers and that conflicted with his career. It shouldn't have but that's one of the realities of heightened cheap political hysteria in our current times.

Five years ago, I didn't know what that kind of role looked like. I do now.

I would love to dive into this deeper. Yet it's getting late and not only do I have to work tomorrow, I have a new project that I am excited to start.

That's the great thing about impromptu prompts. >I love seeing those two words together. Would an editor allow this? Bits and pieces of life revealed, that feels natural. I am beyond tired of the scripted kayfabe of the media world. I flipped through the prompts in the book. I'll probably have a chance to circle back to any of these topics. Because like with anything, life is complicated and not always what it seems.