May Second

As I approach a time in life where marriage is not only an option, it's a soon to be inevitable action, I thought perhaps putting some brain power into the idea was, well a good idea.

First off, what is marriage? Second, how will it be effected by my aspergers. Third, and most important, will it make me happy until my dying breath.

Third, perhaps not all the time, but I can work with that. I think one of the more important parts of a relationship is learning how to have a disagreement, or a bad day, without having a fight. While many would say I'm very independent, and for the most part emotionless, it's not all that true. Lot's of emotions all at once, especially bad ones, usually are a huge negative impact on my mood, sometimes my day, and even longer than a week. A bad fight in a relationship I don't feel is very strong, is quite often the end of it. That being said, I've only ever had about two relationships I do feel stable and comfortable in my life. One of them, I let get too far, without pulling back and taking a much needed step out of.

A good marriage for me, would be able to work out issues with both parties satisfied, feeling loved, and ultimately ending in a situation than was better than before. Without that factor, I'd constantly be unhappy, unsatisfied, and asking myself why I got married to this person in the first place. It's a type of security to me, and in a sense where I find my happiness. I could just as easily avoid fights all together by not being with anyone at all, so it's usually my 'go-to' answer. Marriage would feel in a way, like being trapped, into this commitment where avoiding fights by being alone isn't an option. It's where my happiness depends on my interactions with this other being, and it isn't just about me and my feelings, and what I want.

Going in reverse, second, my aspergers. This makes "third" more difficult. It took me many years in life to be at a point where human relationships are even a possibility. But I'm a fast learner, and I catch on. Taking psy classes where helpful, and learning and reading more about aspergers and human interaction helped. If you knew me 7 years ago, you wouldn't know who I am now. Putting myself in your situation, and understanding how what I did hurt you? That wasn't me. Not that I wouldn't feel bad, I just wouldn't feel like it was my fault. And I still to this day, have a saying in my mind where if I didn't hurt someone on purpose it's not my fault, but I know it shouldn't mean I didn't do anything wrong at all. Do I feel I'm far enough along in life to be in a healthy marriage? Honestly, not really. I'm not sure if it's my nerves talking, or if I really mean that. But I'll never know unless I work really hard at it. And I've always been the type of person to learn by doing, and I know that with love, real love, I can.

Which brings me to my first question, what is marriage. More specifically, what is marriage to me, what am I expecting from it, and what do I want it to be. To most people marriage is a diamond ring, a wedding, children, and a home to put your christmas tree in. Marriage isn't a soft topic for me, it's not a time of year, the biggest day of your life, having a baby, it's not even about me at all. When I think of marriage, I think of what life is like in 20-30-40 years, and am I happy? What is going to happen between the space of now, and 35 years from now? What is every day waking up to the same person going to be like? And will my love change and fluctuate, can we deal with that? Could I see myself being homeless with this person? Could I see myself being incredibly rich with them? What do the bad days look like? And most important, is he going to love me every single moment, of every single day, of every year, for the next....50 years? If there was ever a reason for him to stop loving me, what's that reason?

You always hear about married couples saying the love just died. How did it get there? What happened from the moment you decided to spend the rest of your life with this person, to now deciding that is exactly opposite of what you wanted. How may of those people look back and actually regret being divorced but just can't admit it? How many wished they would have tried harder? And devils advocate, how many people who have been married for 40 years wish they would have left along time ago?

What makes marriage, literally marriage? Is it the paper you sign? Is it the pact to love each other forever with a get-out-of-jail-free card? You can ask 40 different people, and I bet they would all have a different answer.

I think you have to start by asking, is this the life you want always? Would I be content never being extremely wealthy? Are my life goals aligned with his? Do we enjoy the same things? Does only one of you want children, and in that case, does age really matter? Because the life you build together is the very foundation of your marriage in the first place. And if a key factor isn't aligned, you are already off to a bad start. Hard things to talk about right?        

And none of these notions seem romantic, but hard to argue illogical.

You put on your dress, you tell everyone where the flowers go, tell the photographer to shoot this, put on your borrowed shoes, no one dares ask why. Why are you deciding to marry this person, this one specifically, or why marry at all; what you think the right reasons are and why. Most weddings I've attended as a guest I've asked my mind, why they where getting married...what is the point? But never asked out loud...that I remember. Even worse the weddings where everyone won't say it, but they are all betting against you, and in the end they are correct. I've been to more than one of those.

I doubt it's very vain of existence, until I look at you. Look at you, prostrated, from your ten hour day at work, gone the moment you hit the pillow, soundly, but with the sweetness and gentleness your heart expels. I realize I love none more, how could I ever. Knowing that's the face I want to sleep next to every night. The one I crave to be woken up to. I cling on to every breath of his, like a child learning a language. I adore his face, the way it's open, breathing deeply. The softness of his hair when I run my hands threw it, and the gratification I get when I kiss his forehead. It's this I know, I've never felt before, extreme euphoria. A feeling I'd like to hold on to, as long as I possibly can.

How I know it's you, the exception to my mind, to ration, to logic. But still without doubt, no matter what marriage actually is, or what it should be, that I just want to be with you...always; every morning, every night, every moment in-between, for as many moments as you breath.                              

Inferior Vena Cavae

I sat perplexed a few days ago, a little lost in my own world, wondering what exactly love was. Feeling a sort of pity for myself while I wondered if I myself really even knew.

Maybe I still don't. But I came up with an answer today that made me happy. And I realized that's what it's all about.

Love isn't a carved in stone set of rules you must follow. It isn't not fighting everyday. It's not making dinner for someone every night, or tending to their every need. But suppose that's what made you happy, I'd imagine that's what love is for you.

For me it's what I want 5 years from now, where I want my life to be. It's today and doing what I need to do to stay content. It's having someone who you can depend on, someone who loves you unconditionally. What ever I want it to be, it can be, and it is.

I'd imagine you and your partner would have to share some of the things that make you happy to keep each other happy. I guess I am lucky that way.

Climax

What mommy never told you is how hard communication would be. What mommy never told you is how much you would grow apart from her...from everyone. What mommy never told you is that fairy's don't exist, and you will never save the world.

I can pretend all I want, but I still always be this person. Feelings I can't control, emotions I'll never understand, the loneliness I'll always have.

What I can never tell you is what I really need. Not because I can't speak, not because I don't know the words, but out of sheer fear. Fear I won't be heard. Fear so drilled and set deep inside, planted as a tiny seed before I even learned to walk.

Having Aspergers mostly means, that even if you find that one person...that one person who you love more than anything ever...anything thing you ever thought possible...and thing that reason found entirely improbable...it still won't have the chance that it will actually work.

It's accepting that anything you have ever loved will be a short term story. A chapter. You will have that one amazing chapter, the chapter that defines everything, every part of who you are. The chapter that makes you feel everything you have never felt, things you didn't know you could, parts you didn't know you had. The chapter will be the best read, it will be heart wrenching, it will be memorizing. But with every chapter comes an end, even if you are willing to keep writing or not, but it won't get better than this.

What it said

Sometimes you are lucky, sometimes you are not. Sometimes you work really hard for something you never get.

Sometimes I'm insensitive, and blind at the same time. I try my best to learn from my mistakes, but quite often I've had to make them all over again. I can't say I'm entirely secure with who I am, because I don't feel in the past I've been everything I could have been.

I'm a chalk board, ready for erasing, starting over, creating something new. Is it terrible to say I don't really know who I am quite yet? I think I can be better. I think I can be stronger, wiser, and more clever. I could be more kind if I tried, and I'd like to be a little tougher.

So no, I'm not done growing, not done changing. I will always try to be a better person than I was the day before. Will that always work? Probably not. My temper gets lost in emotions, my mind gets lost in sadness, and my heart gets lost in the moment.

I'm not sure how to stop dragging the guilt and remorse I have for past mistakes around with me. Maybe I don't need to, maybe it makes me the person I am. I can't make someone forgive me, can't make them love me. I have to be content with my guilt, or else I won't ever be content at all.

It's dangerous you know, the in flight fall.
The waiting for impact
Not wondering if it's going to happen,
but when
My sense of self is a slight memory
Nothing this perfect can last forever
so you just wait, wait for immanent death
You were grown to think this way,
you where born in a world where true love is hard
it's hard and it's complicated
it's sacrifice
and it's pain

Nothing good in life comes easy

So you sit waiting for the plane to hit the ground
You hold on for dear life,
and remember everything good
Everything up until now was just waiting

Nothing good in life lasts

So you sit waiting for the plane to hit the ground
I bet I will wake up
I'll wake up and realize I never left my bed
It's dangerous you know, living in your dreams.
You don't want to be woken up,
but fear with everything in you, that you might have to
Conditioned that you never get everything you want

Beggars can't be choosers

So you sit waiting for the plane to hit the ground
Could it be possible it never does?
Can you get everything you want?
Why does it have to feel doomed before it even began
And why do we run when we don't really know what we fear
It's dangerous you know,
fear

This

A thousand days feels like one moment with you. Life took a million times a million years, in that regard, to find you. It's just about the same as if I had just dreamed about everything that could make me happy...and then multiplied it a thousand times over.

Never [have I ever] thought these feelings existed at all, (put one finger down). Never [have I ever] thought these nonexistent feelings could happen to me, (second finger down). Never [have I ever] felt more then ever thought possible, (third finger down). Eventually I'm the first one with all fingers down.

It's a little bit difficult to discuss what took me to this place in life. All I know is I'm here, and now I know. Now I know why it takes your breath away, now I know how it stops your heart. I didn't understand before, I never got it. But I do now...I do and it's something I can't put into words.

I'm not sure anything could happen that would make me stop the world I'm spinning in now.

In other words

I run a restaurant, a restaurant with my family. My hands have heat blisters on them often from working the line. I put in 12-14 hour days, 7 (sometimes thankfully 6) days a week. I deal with customers, I deal with employees. I have a million dollars on the line, and plenty more after to worry about loosing...like everything I own. I have three hungry, slobbery, attention needing dogs at home...not to mention a house to take care of. The list goes on

Let's just say...pressure...stress? No biggie. I can put a lot on my plate, and [possibly] not loose my mind. To say whether it's been lost or not already is the question. Anyways, the hardest and most terrifying thing I will ever have to do is fall in love. It's the easiest and hardest thing, all at once, a million miles an hour.

Time to catch your breath? Forget it. A feeling that you may not crash and burn? Nope, no mercy. The feeling of your stomach not being filled with bugs? Don't even think about it. The notion your feet are on the ground? Haha, cute. But Happiness? You bet. An overwhelming feeling of complete content? Yep. Smiling all the time, for no reason other than reading a funny text two days ago? Okay yeah...a lot of that.

It's hard for us as humans to admit our real feelings. I've thought about this a lot, being a psy major, why the biggest human flaw is not being honest, with yourself or anyone else. Fear of being recognized as a real person, with feelings. NO WAY! Can't be one of those!

We would rather do things that make us feel terrible than to do something that makes us happy. Take someone who is addicted to drugs or alcohol for a second. They drink or whatever because they are sad, and whether they admit it or not their addiction makes it worse, not better. But in order to get over addiction, they need to do things that make them feel good about life. Taking a nice hike, finding passions, finding love. Do they want to do those things? Of course not. Falling in love scares everyone, even the best. Or it's possible it's just the falling out of love that scares everyone, but inevitably that causes falling in love to be scary as well. Every person you meet you will either know forever, or you will part ways...there is no other option.

This is turning into a rant. Me for one? I'll pick being happy, I will pick being happy over being hurt in the past, and I will pick you...every time.