Things I Tell My Wife by Matt Knutson

“I think we should celebrate our first anniversary with traditional paper gifts,” I told my wife a few weeks ago in anticipation for this Sunday. I don’t know why this is a tradition, or why I felt compelled for us to do it, but I’m really looking forward to the anniversary where we get a new camera. That might be Year 48.

Logic has me guessing that we exchange paper gifts after the first year because newlyweds often aren’t rolling in the dough 365 days after proudly proclaiming, “I do!”

Sera and I certainly aren’t, but I think if I could afford to give her a crisp $100 bill made out of paper, she’d be pretty happy. She negotiated our gift limit to $35, up from my initial $10 suggestion.

When I reflect over the past year, I realize just how important paper has been in our lives. A year ago we stood off to the side of the altar and signed our marriage certificate as Sera’s sisters sang “Take Heart” by Hillsong United. I just now remembered my unrealized fear of the pen not working properly.

Days later when we returned from our honeymoon, Sera and I sorted through mounds of cards and gifts from our wedding guests. These pieces of paper were filled with meaningful words and advice for how to love one another throughout this year and the years to come. Several of these are now framed in our home as a reminder of the support that comes with our friends and family. Just today we received our first anniversary card in the mail from my parents; new paper to remind us that our love is still worth celebrating.

Flash forward a month and our living room is filled with paper as we finalize our immigration packet to prove our marriage is valid to the U.S. government. Complex paperwork is certainly not our forte, and mailing in that stack of papers brought weeks of worry and wonder as we underwent the immigration process together. Later in the year, letters from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services would bring frustration, joy and relief in the form of a green card.

This May brought another important piece of paper to Sera’s life. Her graduation with a master’s degree was the culmination of years of hard work and many long papers finally paying off. This was certainly a piece of paper worth celebrating.

Perhaps paper was chosen as the first anniversary gift because of its importance in everyday life. The use of paper may be declining every year due to technology, but paper is still used for the most important documents. A new list has been established as an alternative to the traditional anniversary gifts, proclaiming clocks as the first year standard.

Unless Sera was able to get me a black market iWatch from Apple, I’m not too interested. This list also moves China from the twentieth year to the second. Talk about an upgrade. We will clearly be sticking to the traditional list, except for year 14, which was ivory and is now banned. Maybe I’ll finally get my wife the baby elephant she’s been begging for that year.

Paper has been a blessing in our first year, and I’m excited to celebrate its importance with my wife this Sunday. Our marriage has thankfully been so much more than a legal agreement signed on a wedding day on an expensive sheet of paper.

It’s been the beginning of a, “Once upon a time,” love story that we’re excited for our future children to read pieces of in old copies of the Albert Lea Tribune.

I’ve had the honor of telling my wife many things in our first year of marriage, but I’m happy to say the thing I’ve told her the most this year is, “I love you.” I look forward to writing the same words next year as we celebrate our anniversary with cotton.

 

Rochester resident Matt Knutson is the communications and events director for United Way of Olmsted County.