even here, I choose me

We have walked through storms, through forgiveness stretched thin, through love that looked more like labor than romance. Yet we have also laughed in kitchens, built dreams on shaky foundations, and chosen each other even when choice felt heavy.

And now I stand in the quiet of a weary decision: even though we are, and could be, in a greater place—I know I would still choose myself. Not from lack of love, but from a deeper knowing that survival and sacrifice are not the same as wholeness.

I don’t have a perfect marriage. What I have is a reflection of two people growing, failing, trying, and still finding ways to show up—sometimes for each other, sometimes just for ourselves. And maybe that’s what this union has always been meant to teach me: that love is not a destination, but a constant becoming.