How marriage can change you

I think one of the biggest things that has changed for me after marriage is openness. Of course I'm more open with Joe, but I think marriage has taught me how to be open with other women. I usually take a long time to trust someone enough to share my heart with them. I was never one to talk openly about struggles I was having. I wanted people to have as good of an image of me as I could project so I never really wanted to talk about the 'dirty laundry'. After we got married I was fortunate enough to have a really good friend who had also very recently been married. We were able to share our struggles and it was wonderful knowing I was not alone. One thing I now feel is really important is talking to women, especially who are getting married about marriage. That it's not all unicorns and rainbows. That it is normal to fight, that it can even be good to fight sometimes. I thought going into marriage that I had a pretty good idea of what it would be like. I wish I had spent more time with married women to really find out. Now I'm not saying that marriage isn't wonderful. It is. It's one of the best things ever. But it is so hard and it takes work. I want to be able to show people that our relationship, that no relationship, is perfect.