The blog post written by a 20-something year old who stated that she wasn’t getting married yet because she had too many items on her bucket list that hadn’t been ‘crossed-off’ has gotten a lot of buzz lately. The attitude presented in the post was that singles should get all of their ‘fun’ out before they get married because, whelp, once you’re married there goes all of your fun—out the window never to return! I myself used to be someone with this attitude. My hope for all of these singles that just want to have fun is that someday they meet someone special enough to change their mind.

I married young, at the ripe old age of 21. I decided to get married because every day of my life since I met my husband has been better than any of the days that I had before him. He’s my other half, my best friend, and he compliments me with his strength in areas that I am weak in.

I’ve always been a ‘big picture’ person. I’m the type of gal that drives all of those detail oriented folks IN-sane. I’m the one that usually comes up with something off of the wall like: “let’s go to Russia” or “let’s go diving with whale sharks in The Philippines”. Admirably, my detail oriented husband is the one that figures out how to make things happen. He’s the bean-counter (money-manager) all year to make sure that adventures are in the budget, the master of maps that finagles train station routes and bus stops to get us from place to place, the booker of hotel rooms, and he’s the reason why I have had the time of my life during a castle quest in western Germany.

After ‘training-it’ through Belgium and Holland we rented a car in Cologne; something that scared me and it would scare you too if you saw the way that Europeans zip around cities in their little peanut smart cars! We felt brave, and eventually, comfortable speeding down the Autobahn; something that I really recommend—a liberating experience unlike any other. Even for those of us who are considered aggressive drivers at home, it brings out your inner beast.

An area particularly traveled in the summertime for wine tasting, the valleys and mountains in the Rhineland have rolling bright green hills that contrast perfectly against grey winter skies. If heaven has landscaping I’d venture to say that it looks similar to this area. As the co-pilot, I read the map while my better half navigated back roads with German traffic signs and names that we couldn’t pronounce. Sheep, tractors, and collie dogs made the view out of our tiny European-sized car amusing. You can’t throw a rock in the Rhine or Mosel River valleys without hitting a castle that looks like it should be in a medieval movie. This wasn’t an easy trip and it wasn’t one that I could have navigated alone.

I guess what I am trying to say is: driving two hours to see a castle and walking a mile (plus) up a mountain in a creepy forest with broken shoes, struggling through a conversation in German with a local in the middle of nowhere to buy pretzels because you are starving, squatting to urinate in public because you can’t find a bathroom, vomiting on a packed train because of a virus, & getting ripped off $140 for breakfast really isn’t as much fun alone. It doesn’t matter where you trounce, how often you trounce, how many blisters you get, or how many pictures you take. You can conquer a lot more as a team, you just have to have the right mindset . . . you have to WANT to. You have to WANT to because the odds are against you when you marry young. Today was one of the best days that I can remember, and I learned something. It doesn’t really matter where you go in the world. It doesn’t matter how beautiful or adventurous or ‘fun’ what you’re doing is if you don’t have someone extra special to share it with.