"Something No One Else Had Ever Done": 59 Times Boyfriends Proved They Were Worth Marrying

He anticipates my needs daily and acts on them. My water bottle(s) are always full, my devices are always charged and he blocks his calendar every morning so he can go on a walk with me and the dog. It truly isn’t the big grand gestures (he does those too) but it’s the every day things to consistently prove he is interested, attentive and truly cares about making my day better.

Reading. I dated many men who don't read at all, and to me (fairly or unfairly) that demonstrates a lack of curiosity about the world. 


My now-husband is an avid reader. 


The very green flag part of it is that he reads very widely, many genres, and frequently reads women and diverse authors with no real performative bent or agenda in doing so; he likes a good story and good stories come from many people and feature many different characters. It just is. Recently he butted in with his own take on my book club when we were doing a Taylor Jenkins Reid book. 😅.

We started dating when we were 19/18 (we're 34/33 now). When I was 22 and 24, I went away to study abroad, one time to study a language intensively and the other for my Master's. He supported me without question from the very beginning, there was never any conversation about breaking up over being long distance. The second time, I remember asking him if he had any doubts over me going away for another year. I felt selfish and I thought that maybe he wasn't being honest with me. He said, like it was the most obvious thing:

"What difference does another 10 months make? I have the rest of my life to spend with you."

He broke his leg about 2 months into us dating and even in pain, on meds, exhausted, stressed about money, stressed about medical costs, etc he was still the same patient, kind man I knew him to be. The “mask” didn’t slip - because there wasn’t one. I knew he was the one for me then, and he’s continued to prove it every day since (we get married next summer!).

He’s so generous with me. He always wants to make sure I’m taken care of even though I had been single for 10 years before we met. I’ve never felt like I didn’t know where I stood with him. He was and is always clear about his intentions with me.

He told me he wanted children. I told him: good for you, I want to finish my masters degree and find a steady job and buy a house.
He said: that’s fair.

And then he actually came back to it after I found a job, finished my studies, and and we bought a house.

I thought he would walk away after an explosive fallout with some of my family. I was more concerned he would do that thinking I had a trainwreck of a family situation and didn’t want to be part of it. I was ugly crying on the side of the road in a sketchy town and he had pulled over as well and came and gave me a big hug and said “I always knew you had a rocky relationship with your old man”

I had never felt so safe in my life.

He's so thoughtful and caring. And completely selfless. When we were first dating, we took a trip and were staying in a yurt, and there were squat toilets on the other side of the village. It was also below freezing. I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, and it turns out I had an upset stomach. I used up all the toilet paper I had with me, and was stranded, squatting and freezing. Just as I was starting to weigh how to extricate myself from this unfortunate situation, I saw the light of a headlamp, and heard my name. He realized I'd been gone for a while, got worried, came to look for me in the freezing cold, and had brought along a fresh roll of toilet paper, just in case I needed it (which I did).

I had a friend who had moved from Canada to the US for her relationship. After a few years, things were not good and they were going through a rough divorce but she didn’t have a plan on how to get home with her stuff. I was telling my then boyfriend about it, and how I wished I could take time off from school to go help her. He without hesitation said he could drive down and get her. Mind you this wasn’t BC to Washington, she was in Florida and we were in Alberta. He was fully willing to drop everything to drive across the continent to help out a friend of mine who he hadn’t even met yet. She ended up getting help from family, but the fact that he was seriously offering meant so much to me (and my friend - she mentioned it in her speech at our wedding lol).

He saw a woman with a child outside of a restaurant, asking for money for food. I'm a bad person and immediately assumed they were running some kind of scam and ignored them. Without pausing to think about it he went inside and bought her a sandwich. Up to that point I'd always prioritized dating folks who were at least as intelligent and funny and cute and have their life together, but on top of that he always errs on the side of kindness, and that's all I could ask for.

We rescued a dog who was not well enough to be spayed for a while so she had a few heats with us. My husband (boyfriend of 10 months ) asked me for a pair of panties and a pad and constructed a dog diaper for her and would clean up any messes from her period. This was a dog I sprung on him too.

My wife told me she knew I was the one when I helped her look through her dogs poop for blood. Almost a decade later and I love that dog almost as much as I love her.

We tackle any problem in life together as a team, he also makes my life more calm and fun and puts me first, when I'm sick he looks after me. There is many more but I'd say these were the main "I can't wait to marry this guy" feels.

In the first month of dating, we were invited to a friend’s pool party.
He used to volunteer as a firefighter, as we pulled up to the house, he said - “I have resuscitation equipment here, do you think I should bring it in just in case?”

The fact that this man was willing to take on the responsibility of saving a life completely voluntarily…. That was the instant he had my heart.

He didn’t like the towels in my apartment and instead of complaining he went out and upgraded them without saying a word. I don’t have to act like his mommy so he can definitely be my daddy. Lol.

He saw the beauty, worth, and light inside me when I was at my lowest and couldn’t even see it in myself. He inspires me to be a better person. He is warm and kind, and he’s the person people can count on when they need help with something. He’s very understanding and non-judgmental. Whenever I did something or acted in a way that bothered him, he could actually communicate it to me clearly and let me work on it, instead of just walking away. We respect each other and each other’s boundaries. In the beginning, I warned him that i’m weird and will probably just get weirder, the more comfortable I get with him and he said, “that’s okay, I can handle it”. We are both smart but in different ways, ways that complement each other. He makes me laugh and smile everyday. He is also so handsome, has the most beautiful smile, and takes care of himself/his body.

Above everything else, he makes me feel safe, secure, and truly happy. I never thought I could love someone this much. I’ve been hoping that he’s the man i’ll marry someday, since the 2nd day I knew him.

I saw him caring for his young daughters early on in the relationship. i watched the way they sat on his lap and asked him to brush their hair after a bath. my heart melted. he's an amazing care taker, & he will help anyone. he's generous with his time.

I’d been vegetarian for two years when we met. He had started eating veggie burgers for health reasons but still ate meat. I’m vegetarian for ethical and health reasons; it’s extremely important to me, personally, but I never expected I’d meet another vegetarian so it wasn’t a deal-breaker. I considered it a bonus that he at least liked veggie burgers. He ate meat a couple more times after we began dating and then became vegetarian. That was 21 years ago and he’s been vegetarian ever since.

Also, he didn’t bat an eye when I moved in with my five cats.

When other men told me "you deserve someone better" he told me "I want to be better for you.".