Being married can be a wild ride. Through my decade of single living, I had a lot of fun, but I never could have imagined how great married life would be. No more leaving each other at the end of the night. No more worrying about a lonely future. And you always have a partner in crime in all of your endeavors. But aside these great things there was some changes that I did not anticipate:

1. Game of Thrones turns into Once Upon A Time

There are a lot of great shows out there. Some of those shows however are a bit more graphic than others. When you’re single you get to indulge on whichever show you like without any repercussions, but when you’re married you start to make compromises. For some couples this isn’t an issue, but it’s probably safe to say that most women aren’t stoked to watch shows like Dexter and Game of Thrones as much as we men are. So you start to find shows in the middle of the road. Most comedies are a safe starting point like The Office or Modern Family. I’m currently in the middle of Once Upon a Time right now, and I’m actually enjoying it. You may sacrifice some of your old favorite shows, but you start new shows together, and that ends up being a lot better.

2. Sleeping in till 11:30 turns into sleeping in till 9:30

Now this has definitely been strange for me. Before I was married I could sleep in until 12:30 if I wanted to. Granted, much of that was because I was playing video games, going to bonfires or swiping on Tinder through the wee hours of the night. But now I’m always with the person I love and care about the most. Going to bed at 10 doesn’t feel weird anymore. And now I can’t sleep in past 9:30. Not even on the weekends. It’s a good problem to have.
3. Eating Taco Bell turns into eating home cooked tacos

This is one of the many small pleasures of being married. While I loved eating out every meal as a single dude, coming home to a fresh cooked dinner is unbeatable. Now if only I could get her to make Baja Blast…
4. Weekdays turn into weekends

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When you are single you spend an awful lot of your time trying to figure out what to do and who to do it with. But once you have the who, the what doesn’t really seem to matter all that much. The things you waited for the weekends to do, now you can do anytime you want. And because of that a Saturday is not much different from a Tuesday night. It’s actually nice because it eliminates the weekend pressure and allows you to do what you really want when you really want to do it.

5. Your social life turns lifeless

This is one of the more unfortunate consequences of marriage. Being in a thriving single community, while very fun, has its downsides. With so many potential friendships and connections, once you remove yourself from the single world the single world is quick to move on from you. When you’re single, you’re always getting texts from your friends and the people you’re perusing. You are an integral cog in the single life machine.  But once you are married, you don’t go to the desert parties. You aren’t available for booty calls or movie nights. And so your once thriving social life gets reset. Now the newly married and young couple crowd also has its perks, but it juts takes time to rebuild that network. But more than anything else that one relationship is worth more than all the booty calls in the world. It’s worth the reset.