The Pros (and Cons) of Being With Someone Since You Were 19

Sharing 15 years of love, change, and everything in between, plus a question for the group

This year marks 15 years of being together.

Last night on the way home from a birthday party, PJ was looking at photos from nine years ago, back when our dogs’ hair wasn’t white and we were living in the first house we ever bought together. Though we had been together for five years at that point, everything still seemed fresh and new and exciting, I suppose because we were renovating an old house that we had fallen in love with and were making our own.

Looking at the photos, it seemed like another lifetime ago. “You blink and it goes by like that,” PJ said.

I don’t know about that, I told him. For me, it definitely feels like it’s been about 10 years since the photos and videos he was looking at were taken. So much has happened since then: