Today, my husband and I celebrate our seventh wedding anniversary.
I don’t often speak publicly about my marriage. Not because it isn’t significant. Quite the opposite, in fact. The way I see it is some things are so sacred, they don’t need an audience.
But on this special day, I’m peeling back the curtain just a little, because our journey together—the love we’ve cultivated, the partnership we’ve built, the way we continue to choose each other every single day—deserves to be honored in the light.
The Last Chopper Outta ‘Nam
It feels wild to say that we met the “old-school” way: through friends. Thankfully, I narrowly missed the dating app wave. I met my Tenderoni before I even knew what Tinder was.
So there were no gamified swipes, no tricky algorithms, and no curated bios full of strategic flexes. We were just two people, already pre-vetted by the ones who knew us best, who were free to drop the pretenses and show up as we were…
Ready to love.
I thank God every day that I missed the dating app era, because it feels like I caught the last chopper out of ‘Nam, chile.
Especially now, when the conversations around love and partnership online are filled with so much combativeness. I scroll past debates on 50/50, $200 dates, arguments about who should submit to whom, and "what do you bring to the table?" with the detached amusement of someone who simply cannot relate.
Because when you meet the right person, when real recognizes real, a lot of those disputes become so trivial.
As our love deepened, so did our understanding of what true partnership means. And it’s far more nuanced than some of those viral social media hot takes.
Before Ciara Told Us She Had A Prayer, I Had Already Petitioned God
Before our good sis Ciara told the world she prayed for Russell, I had whispered my own petition to God. I had my list. I made my desires known. And then, I let it go. I decided it was above me and trusted the Universe to cook something up just for ya girl.
She did not disappoint.
What I received was better than I ever could have imagined…
A partner in the truest sense of the word. A man who leads with integrity, who moves with grace, who loves with the kind of quiet depth that doesn’t demand attention but commands presence.
In so many ways, I feel like God’s favorite.
Love Without Hierarchies
One of the things I love most about Larry is that I’m not someone to be dominated, controlled, or molded into an objectified fantasy.
I never have been.
I am not his "rib."
I am not his possession.
I am a sovereign queen standing beside a king.
There is no hierarchy between us, only partnership. He trusts me to lead where I am strong, and I do the same. There’s a kind of magic in being in partnership with someone who is not competing with you for control, but co-creating a life where both of you thrive.
And while I could spend all day listing the ways I appreciate my husband, what stands out the most is this: He has shown me, time and again, how to be a better human just by watching the way he moves through this world. Not only do I respect him greatly, I admire him, too.
The Leap That Changed Everything
Moving abroad was my dream before it was his. And if we’re being real, in theory, it was a tough sell for him. But when the moment came, he trusted me enough to take the leap. To leave behind everything familiar and step into the unknown with me.
That kind of trust is no small thing.
Moving abroad was, in many ways, a stress test for our marriage. It stripped away the distractions, the social circles, and the external noise. For a while, we were all we had. And in that space, we learned what it really meant to hold each other up. To move through uncertainty hand in hand. To walk through fire and come out stronger, more resilient, and more deeply committed than ever.
We’ve witnessed each other in times of immense joy, unbearable grief, unexpected disappointments, and unforgettable victories. And through it all, we’ve chosen each other. Again and again, day after day.
Through all of life’s changes his unwavering ability to hold space for me in every version of myself has remained a constant.
A Love That Makes Room
Larry has always expanded his capacity to nurture and hold my greatness. Not everyone can do that with such sincerity, devotion, and consistency.
With him, I never felt like I was being too much or that I was difficult to love... even when I was doing the most and being difficult.
I haven’t been perfect. We haven’t been perfect. But love—real love—makes room for imperfection. For grace. For forgiveness. For the days when we fall short and still find our way back to each other.
He has held space for my mistakes and missteps. I have done the same. He has forgiven me when I wasn’t showing up as my best self. I have done the same. And he has loved me through every iteration, through every shift, every awakening, every wild idea and gut feeling I just had to follow.
That kind of love is rare. And I don’t take it for granted.
Seven years in, and I know this is only the beginning.
Lucky Number Seven
They say the number seven is a number of completion and of wholeness. And maybe that’s true. But to me, it feels more like a threshold. Like we’ve built something solid enough to stand the test of time, but there’s still so much more ahead—more lessons, more laughter, more inside jokes, and more versions of ourselves we haven’t even met yet.
We’re two identical twin birthday Leos, locked in. And it’s a beautiful thing to spend my life witnessing someone grow older, wiser, and, somehow, even swaggier.
Seven years of marriage. Ten years of loving this man. I still think he’s one of the dopest dudes alive and I’m honored to be his wife.
A Love Letter To Larry
This year, I decided to take it old school and put pen to paper, writing Larry a love letter. Sometimes, the weight of gratitude and love is too immense to simply be spoken; it has to be written, felt, and honored in ink. And as a writer, how could I not?
You can see some of what I shared in that letter as a tribute to the love of my life on Instagram:
In a post celebrating us, one of my friends said, “I’m so happy ya’ll exist. In theory and in actuality.” Me too, sis, because a love like this reminds me everyday that God is real.
-Courtney
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