I found this picture on google. I thought it fit very nicely with my words.

In the month of August 2008, my grandma Betty passed away. Although tear stricken, I was happy to see her finally go; as she has been suffering from the side effects of a stroke, and breast cancer for almost a decade. With her passing I realized something very... well awesome is the only word I can come up with at this moment. I realized she and my grandpa Tom had been married for 59 years (this past Christmas would've made their 60th year). Wow. Sixty-freakin-years. Truly monumental.

I often think about love, marriage, etc., because of them. I know it may sound cliché, but they were a match made by the hand of God himself -- or herself. My grandpa started taking care of my grandma after she had her stroke. He had to basically do everything for her -- acting as her nurse if you will. And through all of this he told one of my relatives once that even though the condition she was in, he still loved her more and more with everyday that passed. Those words cut right through my very soul; more and more with everyday that passed. You don't see that anymore.

You don't see unfiltered, raw love. The kind of love that has a golden aura. It's very depressing. I mean in the beginning, granted, there's that euphoria (aka endorphins) that everyone feels. It's all over your body. Ironically enough, cocaine makes people feel the same way. Weird. But anyway, love. Love, this addictive brain chemical that is released by the very sight of another person. Can you imagine waking up every morning ready to live your day with that one person and it never get dull? Almost 60 years had passed and still they loved every fiber of one another, inside and out. I've never loved anyone or anything THAT much.

When one is married, and everything starts going south, what do you do? Well, opting for the easy way out seems to be a popular choice among many couples. But where's the work? You vowed to love, honor, and cherish this person, and now just because of some crazy life scenario, you no longer can own up to that vow? Apparently, that vow was merely nothing more than a play-on-words. Now, mind you, I'm not categorizing certain circumstances into my writing -- like adultery, spousal abuse, and so on -- but when an argument gets out of hand, or one or the other messes up the finances, you can't just say "Game over!"

In my 22 years, the only people I've witnessed stay in a marriage are all of my grandparents -- Grandpa Tom and Grandma Betty, Grandma Helen and Grandpa Charlie, and Great-grandparents Virginia and Frank, and Vena and Norman. I know not everything was always rays of sunshine with them but they got through it. They found away to make it work. It's like my older cousin once told me "Marriage is about putting up with other people's BS." I hate to use that language when talking about my elders, but it's true.

And after putting so much thought into what I want out of life, I could hold up a picture of my grandparents, point my finger at it, and say without a blink of an eye, "That's what I want." I want something that can stand the test of time. I want what they have. Something as pure as spring water, but kicks you in the butt like a double shot of Jack.

I'm not saying any of this is going to happen anytime soon, but if I get nothing else out of life, I want just one thing to age like wine. One thing I savor longer than the crème filling in a Hostess cupcake.