I've never been very good at remembering dates, but that's not why this post is late. Yesterday was our 14th anniversary, and I was at Microsoft's Search Champs v4 (more on that in another post). When Brady Forrest called to invite me, Julie graciously gave me permission to go. While there have been one or two times were we have celebrated our anniversary on a day (or days) not exactly on the day, it's not a habit that I want to get into regularly. Julie put up a pair of posts celebrating the day, but I didn't even know about them until Dori mentioned them to me this afternoon (regular blog reading went out the window due to the schedule).

In one of her posts, Julie quoted Guy Kawasaki, who advocated marrying later as a hedge against an uncertain future. Unsurprisingly, I agree with Julie and disagree with Guy. Marrying later isn't a hedge against the future because you never know how a person is going to change, and we are changed by our experiences in life together. I know that after 14 years, Julie and I are very changed by the experiences we've had, both the bad and the good. We're like a pair of vines that have grown up and gotten intertwined with each other, to the point (or so it seems to me) of inextricability. Not only are we still going strong after 14 years, but as we are branching out in life, we are also coming together. When we got married, I was the computer geek, and she was the biology geek, and there wasn't any overlap -- and I was fine with that. Fast forward, and things have changed. Next month, we're on a panel together at Northern Voice. Blogging has changed each of us and brought us together. When we first got married, Julie was the one who wanted a camera. I honestly didn't see the point. Now, I'm the one toting the huge camera, and photography has become a shared interest. This time I was the one who changed, but still we grew together and not apart. You never know where your shared future will go, but having the mindset of making it work has kept us growing closer and not apart.

Julie, it has been the sweetest and most unexpected adventure of my life to be with you. There is no way that I could have planned something better than what we have.