By Tyler Wooley
Last year, I married my best friend. I know that line is used a lot and is a cliché, but it is true.
I know I always want her by my side when I go through anything in life, especially college.
College can be an intimidating place, and it can be tricky to navigate. There are some aspects about being married in college that simply do not make sense to some people.
“I still have the same job, same class schedule and same insurance, so I wouldn’t say any of the stigmas (married students being too young, naive and unlikely to finish school) are true,” said Chad Downs, a senior marketing major from Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, who is also married.
“You have to learn time management and discipline,” Downs said.
I am often asked how we have enough time to go to class, work, spend time with each other and spend time with friends. It is a delicate balance that we had to figure out.
Learning how to manage time has been something that I have struggled with for a long time. Now my extremely organized wife helps me focus and manage my time.
We also have to have teamwork to keep our home going. She cannot do everything, and neither can I.
That teamwork is a focus in our marriage and the only way we are surviving college.
“Doing life alone is a scary thought in my mind,” said Amy Austin, a senior broadcast journalism major from Selma. “I’m thankful for a constant person to pick me up and encourage me, and I know they have my back.”
“Personally, I’m not married, but I’m engaged to be married,” Austin said.
Austin and her fiancé are under the stress of planning a wedding and are already finding out how teamwork plays such a large part in marriage.
Before my wife and I started dating, it never occurred to me that I would get married halfway through college.
Looking back on that decision, however, I see all of the good that has come of it.
Marrying my wife has been one of the best things that has ever happened to me. The impact she has had on my life is simply astounding. I would not even be at Troy University without my wife.
When people ask me how married life is going, it is easy for me to just say “fine” and carry on the conversation.
The truth is simple: I wouldn’t trade any of the wonderful, frustrating, tiring or hectic moments with my wife for anything in the world. Married life, for me, is amazing, college is amazing, and both at the same time is more fun than I could have ever imagined.
Tyler Wooley is a junior multimedia journalism major from Gulf Shores.
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