The Rom-Commers

by Katherine Center

“People say ‘marriage is hard’ all the time.” He looked around the small crowd—which included our family, Jack Stapleton and Hannah, Logan and his husband, Nico, Mitsuko’s family, in town for the summer drop-off, and all the members of the community garden. My dad went on, “But I disagree. I don’t think marriage is hard. I think, in fact, if you do it right, marriage is the thing that makes everything else easier.”

“Choose a good, imperfect person who leaves the cap off the toothpaste, and puts the toilet paper roll on upside down, and loads the dishwasher like a ferret on steroids—and then appreciate the hell out of that person. Train yourself to see their best, most delightful, most charming qualities. Focus on everything they’re getting right. Be grateful—all the time—and laugh the rest off.”

“There it is. The whole trick to life. Be aggressively, loudly, unapologetically grateful.”