Companionship and Happiness: Lucky I'm In Love With My Best Friend

“It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.”

― Friedrich Nietzsche

To begin my trilogy of happiness through companionship posts, I felt it necessary to start with my newest source of happiness: my wife, Sarah. Our marriage is still a young one, and there is much struggle to be had, but our semester we’ve shared has helped me put some sort of rationale behind the emotions I have been feeling.

Throughout our discussions, the importance of companionship is a topic that has arisen more than a few times. Our friends bring us more joy than we sometimes give them credit for in the simplest of ways. By sharing meaningful conversations, or maybe similar goals, enjoying common interests, or by simply supporting us, our friends make up an important part of what we enjoy most in life. The reason I am so happy with my marriage is that my wife exemplifies these traits on a daily basis.

I spend the majority of my time with my wife by my side, and I have for the better part of two years now. I have the blessing/curse of having a wife who is just as boisterous as myself. Obviously, this is difficult sometimes as we both love to hear ourselves talk, but this has given us a productive struggle that I will elaborate on later. The good side is that we always have something to say to each other, and we are always willing to hear it. This leads to many hours of discussion that, in the grand scheme of things may not be very important, but for each of us in that moment, it is all we need.

Sarah and I are very fortunate in that we are both aware of our tendency to talk right over someone. Both of us are very driven people, and we like to be the best at what we do, and without struggle, we have no opportunity to strive towards improvement. This is another important aspect of this companionship. Our struggle puts so much more emphasis on our accomplishments.

“There is scarcely any passion without struggle.”

― Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays

 The most important contribution to my happiness is the reciprocated love and support that we share for each other, the type where “each [of us] receives affection with joy and gives it without effort.” Enduring the challenge of full-time college student, server, and wanna-be rockstar alone is a difficult task, but with the love and support from Sarah, these challenges are faced much more defiantly than when I was alone.

 “Those who have never known the deep intimacy and the intense companionship of happy mutual love have missed the best thing that life has to give.”

― Bertrand Russell