the upside of marrying someone with the same job as you is obvious.
you literally speak each other’s language.
you understand, exactly, what it means when one of you says “i’m sooooo tired.”

i am not saying that if i married somebody who works in an office i will be this clueless apathetic bitch who will shrug my shoulders if my husband comes home tired and weary. i am just saying that when my husband comes home with this long, worn out look, he doesn’t even have to say the words, i know right away that he had a horribly long night. i can vividly picture what went on, and i can honestly look him in the eye, tell him “i know exactly how you feel” and mean every word.

when he said he spent over two hours talking to a completely paranoid patient who won’t calm down because he thinks every person who is looking at him, or is holding a pen or a paper is recording his every move, i know exactly what he meant.

when he said he ran out of ideas on how to deal with a patient with OCD who flushed the toilet every 30 seconds, i know how helpless he felt.

when it comes to frustratingly defective systems that suck, we discuss it, sigh in unison and try to renew each other’s enthusiasm by listening and agreeing to each other. we pretend we know everything and discuss grand ideas on how to fix the unfixables. we get a good laugh out of that. our arrogance, i mean.

we whine about coworkers who do not understand what it takes to be called responsible. we decide there is nothing we can do about them, but there is something we can do about us. we  complain about the same things. we criticize the same despicable behaviors. we get a good laugh out of that. our immature attitude, i mean.

we live in irony but we complement each other. he hates nursing with a passion, but he is a living proof that even when you do not love what you do, you are still capable of doing your best. i love nursing with a passion, but i come home from work and whine about this and that, a living proof that somehow even when you love what you do, you are not immuned from the frustrating realities you encounter.

i’m sure it wouldn’t be that bad if i married somebody who does something that i’m completely clueless about. after all, it’s mainly about commitment, right?

i’m not saying our marriage is perfect just because we are both nurses.
i’m just saying, the upsides make our lives easier. and i’m glad.