As of yesterday, December 10, my husband and I have been married six months. While this is our first big milestone, it doesn't feel like much compared to the many years we hope to share. Nonetheless, I believe in celebrating even small things, and this is definitely worth celebrating!

Before Zak and I got married, I had the idea of doing a 1 Second Everyday for our first year of marriage. It wasn't an original idea: my friend and fellow Odyssey contributor, Jazmine Anderson, inspired me by doing her own year in seconds (which she posted in a great article here). While I intend to follow through the whole year, I won't be around next June to share it since my time with Odyssey Online will end when I graduate. So now is the time!

Before I show you our six months of seconds, I wanted to share some of the things I learned attempting this surprisingly difficult task. The end result is less than three minutes long but taught me so much that I want to be able to explain. So here is a short list of my own thoughts from this video experiment. I hope you'll read them and keep them in mind once you get to the video!

1. Zak and I are NOT technologically inclined.

Since neither of us keep our phone around all the time, we would often forget to capture a second for the day. We also tend to put phones aside during important or significant experiences, which meant that very little of the video shows us doing cool things. Honestly though, I wouldn't change that. While I did want to do this video project, I prefer not to be someone who needs to capture life in order to enjoy it.

2. Being students takes up a lot of our time.

So much of this video is us reading or studying, and that's because education is a full time job. While we are really glad we got married this summer, our marriage has definitely been defined by student life, and graduation will mark a huge change in our lives and in our relationship. In my opinion, we have become pretty good at creating and protecting time for each other despite constant demands on our time (assignments, social events, friendships, etc.).

3. Our marriage has thrived on support from our friends.

You'll notice a good amount of people in this video aren't Zak or me. One thing we've learned in the past six months is that we need more than just each other; we need close, meaningful relationships with other people, too. Our friends and family are part of what makes our marriage healthy. One myth about romance is the idea that finding your soulmate will "complete" you; this simply isn't true. Marriage is about experiencing the mystery of oneness alongside individual development and growth. Without our friends, the past six months would have been far less fruitful.

4. Life is better when we remember to dance.

Okay, I'll be honest: some of these videos were recorded at a different time than the date says. After missing so many seconds, Zak and I started filling in some days with ~perfectly choreographed~ dancing. This wasn't just out of guilt; we both really enjoy dancing like goofballs. It's one of the ways we make each other laugh and remind ourselves that marriage isn't about being perfect but rather about enjoying each other. So if some of the clips start to look familiar, just imagine us filming each other dancing and laughing until we cry.

5. This project reminded me how I fell in love with my husband: when he wasn't looking.

A lot of this video is me filming Zak; that is partially because he is even more forgetful than me about technology, and partially because most days I couldn't help but sneak a second of the day when he wasn't paying attention. Doing this made me mindful of how much I enjoy just watching him be himself. That is another part of marriage I didn't expect: I know Zak so well that his behavior and mannerisms are as familiar as my own — maybe even more so. From my experience, the phrase "familiarity breeds contempt" is dead wrong. Familiarity expands my love for Zak and makes me even more thankful for his character and qualities.

Well, I've said more than enough. Now, I hope you'll get a kick out of watching our 1 Second Everyday video and making sense of the comments I made above. Enjoy this small taste of what life is like for the Buckles after six months!

(What a thumbnail, right?! That's the only choice YouTube gave me. Sorry, Zak.)