You will compare yourselves to the pros—the couples who have been married for a decade and seem to communicate in perfect harmony. Don't. They had their amateur years, too. They just forgot to take pictures of the fights about the thermostat.
Right now, you are held together by nothing but gravity and a choice. That is fragile. But it is also incredibly honest. Let’s not romanticize the struggle too much. Being an amateur couple is hard. You have financial stress. You have family pressure. You are still figuring out who you are as an individual, let alone who "we" are as a unit.
In this phase, a "date night" isn't a reservation at a rooftop bar. It’s realizing you both have $12 left until payday, buying a box of cake mix, and eating it straight out of the pan while watching a show you’ve both seen ten times.
An amateur does something for the love of it, not for the paycheck or the applause.
But here’s a secret worth holding onto:
Here is your permission slip: