On Being a Wife

Every morning I stand in the kitchen, watching my husband have breakfast at the bar. It sounds so silly, but it's one of the times every day when I really feel like a wife. We aren't much into traditional gender roles, but because I work from home, sometimes it feels like it might look like we do. Either way, making him a cup of coffee while he gets ready for work in the morning makes me smile, whether it screams "housewife" or not.

We've only been married for four months. But even after living together for several years, there are old things that somehow now feel new. I think it's the move from Minneapolis to Charlotte more than the marriage, though, because I didn't really feel this way in Minnesota. Making our bed. Eating dinner together on the couch. Waking up on a Saturday and vowing to do absolutely nothing all day.

And then there are the new things that will still feel new for months. Referring to Rob as my husband, or his parents as my in-laws. Taking the train to meet him for lunch in the city. Driving instead of flying to visit a friend in another city. Writing "Megan Peterson" on anything. After we moved, we finally unpacked our wedding gifts, so this apartment feels like the first place we've lived since the wedding. New plates, new glasses, new pots and pans, a new life together.

Fall is on its way and I'm always amazed at how nostalgia just floods my heart and brings me right back to high school or college or whatever I was doing the previous year. And every year, I pick up a few new experiences and add them to the emotional album that is my life. Last year we were planning a wedding, visiting Virginia for engagement photos and a party, missing fall while we felt winter slowly but surely descend upon Minneapolis. We turned an unfamiliar place into our home, and as I find myself missing it so much this year, I can't help but think about where I will be next year--hopefully feeling settled and at home here in North Carolina.

A lot can happen in a year.