Sect.

When I first decided to add a blog to my website, I knew that I wanted to avoid two things: posting about my personal life/work and posting too infrequently. Naturally, this is failing already. August and September have been blog-less, not because I had nothing to say but because so much happened in my personal life that I could not find the time to sit down and reflect upon it. But today is the perfect day:

Exactly one month ago, I got married.

Weddings are projects with three (or four) phases that they go through:

1. Planning. This is the time for stress. A wedding consists of a great many details that have to be sorted out in advance.
2. Execution. Really the non-stress part. By the time I got to church, the stress lifted - almost magically. Everything that had to be done in advance was done. Now, it was time for the purely romantic moment. The ceremony itself will forever stand out in my mind as one of the most beautiful moments in my life. When the doors to the church opened and the bride entered, I was left speechless with joy and excitement. Those who know me can testify to the rarity of me being speechless.
3. Post-wedding/Honeymoon. The next few weeks were spent in China, where we originally met back in July 2000. We started off with a few days in Beijing (wrecking what little sanity was left after the wedding preparations, by visiting the Forbidden City, the new Summer Palace and the Great Wall in just three days). Then a little bit short of a week was pent in Shanghai seeing all the places we knew from six years earlier - only to discover that many of them had changed beyond recognition. Finally, we went back to Shanghai for a few more days before going back to reality (or the deranged substitute for reality that we usually inhabit).
4. Married life. This is technically not a phase directly related to the wedding but more of a general state of mind that is the result of the wedding. But it is perhaps the most important because this is where one has to deliver on the promises made to one's significant other.

After the ceremony, an old friend seized the opportunity to comment upon married life in general. His words were: "Welcome to the Sect". I remember that sentence, because it seemed an oddly accurate statement.
Originally, I saw the wedding as a single point event: you get to church, say "yes" twice and then go back to life as it was before, except for wearing a ring. But affirming my commitment to my wife in a formal setting does change something - makes it even more real. Perhaps because I no longer have a girlfriend or a fiancée but now have a wife (still like saying that word).
So that is my current status: I am a member of the large sect of married people.

And I love it.