So we can pretend that night never ended...
The Vows
Francesca, we’ve been together for seven years. Davidson, Chestnut Hill, Stow, Marlboro, Austin, San Diego. We’ve done a lot. And we raised that dachshund, which was by far the würst part.
Our love is agapic. It’s adaptable, and we mold it to circumstances. We work. That’s not because this is easy or inert. Spending two months apart before this wedding sucked, and I’ve been jealous of your attention all week. Our love is mindful, but it’s also in my guts.
So, I promise that we’ll be like our parents. Partners. A team. Lifelong friends.
I promise that we’ll live together eventually. But never at the cost of our ambitions.
And I promise that I will always be so excited to see who you’re becoming, to hear the least details of your day, and to love you every day, hour, minute of the life that we’re building together, bit by beloved bit.
Matt, it's strange trying to express our relationship and my feelings for you in terms that other people can understand. It’s not that “words aren’t enough,” that what I feel is somehow inexpressible—but the words we were given weren’t enough. So we made our own.
This is by no means unusual or unique (though all couple-talk inevitably feels that way). But this—our language, our lexicon—has been a significant part of our relationship from the very beginning of our friendship and has become the keystone of our partnership. It allows us to remain close even when many miles apart and to feel secure in moments of worry and chaos. Though we do not talk on the phone even close to everyday, I know, with a single line of text, just a few capital letters, that you are THERE and thinking of me and supporting me…and I you.
With that, I promise to continue to be your closest friend, your person, your Sha Sha. I promise to love fearlessly. And, with you, I promise to try and live life, always, in radical amazement. OLMO.
