Two Things

1. I need you to run away with me when I need to run.  I need you to say you'll be on board with my crazy ideas, especially the ones that will probably never happen and are an extreme long shot.  I know those are the ones you're hesitant to agree to on the off chance they do pull through because then you've agreed to something you may not be entirely sure about.  But I need you to say you'll come with me.  I need you to say we'll join the peace core together after college and that we'll travel to all sorts of backwoods all over the planet, because I'm scared to do it alone.  And if I know I'm scared to do it, I have a hard time believing I will unless I have someone who I think will hold me to it.  I know you won't hold me to joining the peace core or anything like that, but I need to pretend.

2.  I figured out what marriage means to me, and in doing so, why it's important to me.  To me, marriage is encorperating a person into the family.  When I believe in divorce and how wonderful it can be for those couples who are no longer suited to each other, it's sort of hard to believe in together forever always.  I don't think together forever is always healthy, and I don't think that is the point of marriage.  For me, marriage is admitting someone into the inner circle of my life.  It is letting my family and close friends know that this is someone who has a profound effect on my life and someone I intend to build at least part of my life with.  This is someone I want you to know and welcome and form relationships with independant of me.  In marrying someone, I would be bringing them into my family and they would be on the same priority level in my life.  And that is why marriage is important to me.  It is the public accouncement and concrete statement that this is someone who I have welcomed into my family and intend to have around for a while.