My partner and I met in college senior year. We’ve been together for nine years. We cohabitate, but we aren’t legally married. In Colorado, we are considered common-law. Ultimately, our mindset is, “Well, I’m not in a rush, you’re not in a rush, we’ll get there when we get there.” But we also don’t see marriage as an endpoint. We both come from families where relationships have been a bit more nontraditional. My parents were together for 25 years and weren’t married, and his parents have been re-married.
