15 Lessons (Cheese Alert)

This, ladies and gentlemen, is my handsome, strong, encouraging, selfless and wildly imaginative husband, Jakub. From the moment I laid eyes on him, I've been hooked. If I only knew then what I knew now, I would've made my move sooner! But just like I mentioned in other posts, if things would've worked out in the way I wanted, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to see just how beautifully God can works things together. In the past six and a half years of knowing him (three and a half years of being with him), he has taught me some of the most important lessons. Most of them I'm still learning, but with his help, one day I'll get it.

He's taught me...

1. I'm not always right. If you know me, you know that this would not come out of my mouth prior to being with Jakub. There's some deep-seeded issues that went along with the idea that I was always right, but Jakub showed me that it was ok to not always be right, and that being right wasn't necessarily the right goal.
2. How to have an imagination even as an adult. Before being with Jakub, I thought I was creative, and maybe I am, but I certainly wasn't imaginative. This guy has an imagination unlike anyone I've ever met! Sometimes it's so absurd and out there that you just have to laugh. It's something that I've learned to absolutely love about him.
3. What it means to be selfless. I never dreamed that I could be married to such a giving person. Everything he does, he has me in mind. No matter how tired he is, he gives me everything he's got: his attention, his energy, his company, and his love.
4. How to fight. In all my other relationships (friends and otherwise) I either avoided confrontation altogether, or I let it build up until I exploded. Being with him made me want to handle conflicts better: to apologize right away, to talk it out, to actually want to listen to what the other had to say, and most importantly, to never leave angry. We have yet to walk away angry and that's so encouraging to me. I feel safe when we argue and that makes a world of difference. (He even calls me 'sweetie' when we fight, so how mad can I really get?!)
5. I am enough. I've struggled with self esteem and feeling like I'm enough. Smart enough, pretty enough, creative enough, the list could go on and on. He has been so loving each step of the way to building back my confidence. He's shown me that what I have to offer the world is worth sharing and that has changed my life more than you know.
6. Patience. When it comes to fixing things or dealing with my emotions, he has the kind of patience that I yearn for. I've always been considered as being patient, but he's showed me the areas in which I still need the practice.
7. Differences aren't bad. Our backgrounds are so different. Being with him has helped me to focus on similarities rather than differences, and to know that differences are a thing to be celebrated, not condemned. This has been a hard lesson to learn when dealing with the other issue of "I'm always right". My ways are not the only way, or sometimes even the best way.
8. Sometimes it's best to wait. This ties in with patience, but sometimes I get so excited about the future and what's to come that I don't fully enjoy the present. He's the person that keeps me from hurrying through life to get to the next big thing.
9. To have confidence in the kitchen. After leaving culinary school, I felt like people thought I was a failure, even though I didn't leave because I wasn't good enough or couldn't handle it. I let those feelings dictate the way I felt about myself and my abilities. That's an inconvenient feeling when married to a chef. With time, he helped me feel confident again in the kitchen and now I can enjoy something again that I've always loved.
10. To make yourself better, you've got to take risks. He puts himself out there in so many ways and I see how it helps him to grow professionally as well as personally. He's inspired me to step out of my comfort zone and do things that will benefit me.
11. Being "You" is a good thing. He shows me who he really is and even though he doesn't show that to many people, I see just how special all his quirks and uniqueness is to making him, him. That in turn, has helped me to be more open and ok with the person I was created to be.
12. Sometimes locking your keys in your car is the best things that can happen to you. His absent mindedness is what actually started our relationship.
13. What it means to be a man. Not that I'm wanting to know this for me, personally, but he has been such an example of a man. Integrity. Character. Loyalty. Strength. He is my provider and my protector, and he is such a blessing to my life.
14. How to stick up for myself. I've always been a doormat, letting people take advantage of me and run me dry. Watching him be assertive with others and how people respond to that has helped me to do the same.
15. There's no one else I'd rather be with. I never dreamed I'd get married and want to have kids, but here I am with him as my husband. Knowing him and getting the opportunity to spend my life with him has blessed me beyond belief and I would not trade that for anything. He is the love of my life and no one else compares.