Eyes Wide Open?

I have always considered myself a realist, I see through bullshit and I take things for how they are. This is something which I consider especially relevant when regarding love. I have been in a relationship since I was 15 years old. I am with someone who I truly know inside and out, I could read his mind and I am sure he could read mine. I know his flaws, I accept them and learn to love the parts of him which once I considered a deal breaker. He is my best friend; the one person in this world I trust without question. My other half; he balances me out, corrects my flaws by being my perfect opposite. We are in love, sometimes in love like little school children. We play like kids and act like young teenagers who first met. But above all he is my friend; I like to spend my time with him over any one else.

After 5 years marriage is no longer a question, its something which will happen. Something we openly talk about and discuss, something which I believe so strongly in and he realises that need for me to one day hopefully in the not too distance future, fulfill. Coming from two sets of divorced parents, marriage isn't something either of us take lightly. As Courtney Cox got engraved on her wedding ring 'a deals a deal' and that also is my idea behind marriage. I have always though I am walking in to marriage with my eyes wide open. Divorce, its a possibility but not unless we have fought extremely hard to ensure we have done everything we can to not make it happen. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to divorce, I am marrying for life, not for fun but I see the potential of divorce.

So my question...am I looking at relationships and marriage with my eyes wide open? Or am I plaguing my mind with negative thoughts? I see people who have dated for a short period of time and they pollute my facebook with their engagement and ridiculous notions of love for one another. Is it bad that I look at that and roll my eyes and think negative thoughts? When I get married, I will be marrying my best friend. A person who I have a complete respect, admiration and adoration for. Someone who I love to spend my time with and the man who makes me happier and feeling more secure and content than I ever thought I could feel in life. I am not going to proclaim this love in mushy count downs to my wedding on facebook. I am not going to be engaged for years and post monthly, weekly or even daily updates of my upcoming wedding. Most of you would be so lucky to know I was engaged, let alone married. To me, marriage is a private and personal thing. Something which for me would be low key and intimate and basically putting a last name and piece of paper to something we have been living for years. Am I a cold hearted bitch? Or I am more realistic than those people polluting my wall with their engagement count down?

My point of view of love, relationships and marriage usually get disapproving looks. People my age just don't understand how mushy lovey dovey over the top crap just doesn't sit well with me. I like my realistic outlook on relationships, and obviously my outlook has proved successful as I have spent 5 years watching people around me and their relationships come and go.

There is a quote I found a few years back, from a movie I can't remember. It is a complete explanation of my frame of mind and highlights my idea of marriage

"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two."