It’s an automatic thing.

Atche: Ate, any advice before I get married?
Ami: Che, it’s an automatic thing. When you get there you just know what to do.
Atche: Talaga?
Ami: Yep.

I said that because that’s the same answer I got from an Ate (who’s now my marriage god parent) YEARS before I got married.

And I actually believed what I said. Now, thinking about it, I think I should have said more. When I got married, I don’t automatically know how to cook, or be a homemaker, or be a wife, or be married person in a group of single women, et cetera, et cetera. It’s just that, now, I found the courage, or at least an additional reason, to finally learn things (either by asking others to teach me or by trial and error) because I have to so I’d fit into the new role I’m in.

I have to ask my mom to dictate to me how to cook certain dishes. I have this notebook where I wrote all the recipes I learned from mom or from someone else. Aaron frequently jokes about hiding the notebook to test if I’ve come to learn how to cook the dishes by heart. I normally threaten him to be prepared to eat a horrible meal if he does that. 😀

I had to relearn how to do the laundry. The last time I did the laundry was way back in high school. Thank God, Aaron bought me an automatic washing machine. I just had to plug the tubes, put in the clothes, press buttons, and after a few minutes, presto: Clean Clothes. 😉

Chores are just one of the things I have to learn. Marriage has so many facets than an obsessive-compulsive person can actually handle. Of course, I don’t have to do them all at the same time. I just had to face them as they come. If I don’t know what to do, I ask questions or take risks. If I was able to handle it successfully, well and good. If not, I try my best to say sorry to those affected by the decision and count the experience as lesson learned. And you know what’s good about all this? I don’t have to do it alone. I have my God and my beloved, not just as companions but as partakers of this journey with me.