Diamonds are forever, but what about pearls?

Unlike most girls who are getting married, I am not a diamond person. I don't like them.

 I blame Audrey Hepburn:

Sorry Marilyn, diamonds aren't this girls best friend. 

But no, really.

Why don't I like diamonds? Besides being ridiculously over-priced, everybody has them. I don't want a diamond that symbolizes something everyone else has, so why would I want a gigantic rock on my finger?

Granted, yes, I have a diamond, and yes, I love it. Because it's little, and a little goes a LONG way. 

Truth be told, my fiance searched for a pearl for me. He searched hard. He's a winner. 

Why is he a winner? Why do I love that idea?

Because I can't get over the fact that a pearl forms from a little tiny speck of sand that irritates an oyster. 

I can't get over the fact that the oyster is trying to protect itself from that irritant.

I can't get over the fact that the irritation slowly forms into something more beautiful than a piece of sand. 

To me, it transforms, over time, into something so beautiful because of work and hardship. 

To me, a pearl symbolizes the hard work, the trial and error, the beauty that love is. 

The oyster can't just spit out the speck of sand, it works on it. It doesn't throw it away, even though it tries to protect itself from it. It takes years upon years to form them, like a relationship takes years to mature. 

I know this probably doesn't make sense to a lot of you who are reading this, but these are the things I value, the things from my relationship that speak the most to me. 

The slow transformation between the two completely unlike items/people because you didn't throw the relationship away because it's just a irritating little speck once in awhile, then working through it until the beauty comes right through and forms and matures in this love.

I love pearls because they show that things take time and there is hardship. 

Because they show it's not an overnight process that gives you everything you want right away. 

It shows a beautiful reward for being patient and waiting, for not just throwing it away.

I get that diamonds are forever, but pearls are "for better or worse."