The greatest lessons I’ve learned in my human relationship

Every last one of these applies to life with my dog, too.

I am prouder of my relationship with Sean than almost anything else in my life. Of course it’s not always a rosy wonderland, and I’m sure challenges are ahead (we’ve only been together for four years). But for two young twenty somethings, I think we’ve done an excellent job building a supportive, loving, ultimately healthy partnership—both centered in our reality as people and also aspirational about where we want to go together.

Here are the greatest lessons I’ve learned in my human marriage.

A quick timeline

• When I adopted Scout in January 2019, Sean and I had only been together for a few months (since August 2018) and didn’t live together. She was just “my” dog.

• In the early days he’d come over often but was pretty hands off with anything dog related. As the weeks went on, he started to spend breaks between his classes (he was in his senior year of college while I was working my first full-time job) at my apartment to be with her.

• When Sean got a great job offer in Florida in 2020, we m…