Working at something I like
Retiring from that work
Catching a marlin
Playing in the wsop
Getting rich

oh, wait - none of that has happened

Here's the thing for me, if you love someone, marriage isn't a caveat for love. My whole feud with marriage is what it is supposed to represent vs. what it actually does for most of society. I also have some pretty deep religious and societal objections towards marriage.

I think a lot of people use it as a status symbol rather than a symbol for their love for someone. I feel like I shouldn't have to be pressured into marriage and I feel like at this stage in my life I have been due to what society expects of me a male in his late 20s.

Answering Mac's post about 5 most fullfilling things in my life would probably require 10,000+ words to write

Everyone should capitalize on this situation.

*paging master*

i got married pretty young, so i didn't have time to get all "society wants me to marry so i say no!" about it. i realize i'm in the minority here because i actually wanted to be married & we have worked through problems and we are still together.

maybe if i was your ages now, i'd feel differently.

but i was raised, if you love someone, you get married. done.
it is definitely different now.

I assume everyone got the same invite?

I think living together long term prior to getting married is a mistake.

My wife and I lived together about 3 weeks prior to our wedding, and that was because the lease started at the beginning of the month and we got married on the 24th.

Half the fun of the first 6 months - year of your marriage is uncovering some of the mysteries about your spouse that you didn't know.

Nothing major, but the little things like 'she always hangs her towel up on this hook after her shower and if I put my towel their she'll move it and put hers there instead' or 'she puts peanut butter on her bread like this and digs it right out of the jar, even though I like to just scrape off the top layer and move down'. Most people would call them stupid little things or meaningless stuff that is either not important enough to know or that they just forget about after they learn it, but that's what makes a marriage a marriage to me.

People who live together for months or even years before getting married already know all the little things about each other like that, it takes all the mystery and fun out of the first few months of marriage where, even though you know and love the person who you've just married, you fall even more deeply in love with them, because you're finding out all the cool little things that add up to them.

So yes, you do love her less before the wedding, even though you don't necessarily mean to or even realize it until much, much later.

This is hard:

1) Getting my first job offer and hearing how much ****ing scrill was involved

2) Arriving in Rio for the first time. My friend somehow boxed a rich, hot Brazilian girlfriend who hung in the highest social circles there. So we fly down to visit and show up at her house on a Sunday afternoon, weather is perfect and everybody is hanging outside by the pool which overlooked the ocean. There was booze (you could ask for whatever you'd want and it'd get served to you), kickass food being served, and all of her friends were hot as hell. I was legit depressed at that stage of my life but it was def one of those moments where I had to pause and say "holy hell, this moment in time is perfect"

3) Duke winning the NCAA tournament in 2010. Oddly it wasn't the most meaningful 'ship to me, but I was in a pro-Duke bar and everybody was jumping up + down in euphoria for a solid 5 minutes after the final buzzer sounded- probably the most "in the moment" I have ever been.

4) Studying abroad in Florence. Just everything about this was amazing. I'll arbitrarily pick a single experience: one night I was hanging out with guys I barely even knew, but we ended up getting into a fight at a beirut tourney at a bar and getting thrown out, I got slapped by some girl at a club for grabbing her ass, we almost got mugged on the walk home, and then we got high as **** at the end of the night. ****ing sick bonding experience.

5) Going to Montreal for a weekend with a bunch of HS friends when I was 18. First time I was legally able to drink at bars, felt like I had unlocked a whole new world and it was surreal being able to explore a whole new city and do whatever the **** I wanted.

Hah I was like "a marlin? cool!"

and then I was disappointed..

Catching a marlin would certainly be cool as hell.

I don't even think I could physically do it, I have no endurance and am a wuss.

Not a chance I'm ever getting married without living together for substantial period of time.

Man, I'm saving my life experiences for an epic post

lol reminds me when they beat Kentucky in 92. I was a huge fan of Duke and everyone else HATED them. was early in college & we were all gathered in a dorm room watching, basketball girls & guys, baseball guys - way too many people in that room. i was the ONLY Duke fan. i was getting loads of **** the entire game & just up until that shot. Play happens & he hits the sht & it was PIN-DROPPING SILENCE. then i started going crazy, talking crap to everyone in that room. there was so much shock going on, no one could even say a word.

was ****ing awesome.

Which would be awesome reading.

Thats an interesting view, but sounds very risky. If your intention is to live with the same woman for the rest of your life, I would def like to find out if we can co-habitate before making that commitment.

Playing poker for the first time in a casino
Graduating college
Going to MLG Providence and seeing all my heroes play Starcraft
When the As beat the Twins in the 2006 ALDS
When I watched the series finale of LOST

Yeah, I'm cool

and I realize the answer would be "Yeah, but if you're not willing to work on the problems that may occur, you shouldn't marry"

come to Dreamhack next year!

haha that's sick, i'm a big believer in being surrounded by people on the same emotional wavelength when it comes to big sports games that i care about, but that sounds like something that i really should experience before i die.

yeah, i've been on both sides. that experience & then with huge groups that cheered with me.

being the only fan & having your team pull it out like that was GOAT.

Me being only 10 and 17 when my favorite team won the Stanley Cup make me feel like I was cheated out of being able to truly experience the joy of them winning. If they ever won now, it would immediately jump to #2 on my list and would be the only thing that could remotely come close to #1. Right now, #1 is miles ahead of 2-5.

Ya I will do this at some point

as it should be

sorry but anyone who lists a sports team winning a game over the birth or experience of their own child has no heart

Its whatever people want to share. It was about changing the direction of the pub to where I wanted it to go.