i like my "long" engagement

recently i have been thinking about the benefits of a long engagement. not because i want to say a long one is better than a short one. different time frames work well for different people. i just always wanted to be engaged for a year or longer. and i always thought that it was a little, i dunno, annoying when people said it's harder and temptation is greater. and i'm not saying that it's not. i just think if you're ready to get married and if you're doing so for the right reasons, there is no temptation that can trip you up. my situation is also a little different. gabriele and i live thousands of miles away from each other. i'm going to finish school, get married, and then move to italy next year. that's not something i can get together in 3 months or even 6. i really like the extra time because it leaves me not so stressed and it leaves both gabriele and i knowing that we have a strong love between us. the distance is something we actually appreciate because we get to talk a lot.
something i appreciate greatly about the relationship gabriele and i have is that we communicate. no matter what is on my mind, i know i can tell gabriele and i know he'll listen. i mean, do you ever have those moments where you just want to say something but you also feel like maybe you should just keep it to yourself (whether happy, sad, good, bad)? whenever i feel that way, i just say it. i know i won't be judged for it and i know that gabriele will hear me out. i understand that life and love aren't always going to be perfect. but it's all the not-so-perfectness that helps us grow. so really, i like that sometimes we have disagreements. i like them because we work through them and we talk about them. we have learned a lot about each other and we still love each other! and that's what best friends do.
engagement to me is learning about my best friend and getting ready for the best day of our lives. it's also really fun to talk about invitations and favors and dresses and colors...all through google chat/talk. and believe it or not he gives a lot of good input. and it's fun to have time to talk about the house and the certain-to-be-orange kitchen. it's just fun to have time to have fun and not be rushed about things. it also gives me a whole year to start learning italian. since i'm a slacker i haven't really progressed all that much. but i do have gabriele talk to me in friulian sometimes. :) although that's a language i'll try in about 10 years.
i'm also just really grateful for the many examples i have of friends who are married and doing wonderful things with their own families. how weird is it that i will soon join that world? totally weird.