Someone should really warn you, when you are up there in all of your bridal glory, what it will look like in ten years. There you are, all radiant and happy and easily fitting into that size 8 dress. When you’re staying up as late as you want and living spontaneously, you don’t have a clue what is about to happen to you. You have no way of knowing that you will do things like this or that you will have days like this.

How could you know that, just ten years later, you would wake up to three kids in your bed and a baby crying across the room? You could never imagine that you would wipe a snotty nose with your bare hand, rock a baby in your other and have no recollection of the last hot shower you’ve had. You will show up in the carpool line wearing things that would have horrified the college version of you.

Yes, someone should warn you.

They should tell you about the dirty dishes and the laundry. They should give you a heads up on the fact that toddlers poop in the bathtub, your feet get bigger when you’re pregnant and you need to pace yourself on the tooth fairy thing or you will be broke by the third kid. You need to know that the kids will color on your walls and pee in your bed and tell the teacher at daycare what color of underwear you’re wearing that day. Seriously, people, these things happen and you should know.

Then, when they have warned you about all of these things, they should warn you that you would do it all over again. They should tell you that you will learn to appreciate life and love yourself. You should know that, on the worst of worst days, your child will do something crazy and you will laugh until you cry.

In ten years, your life will look nothing like anything you imagined. And you. will. love. it.

Consider yourself warned.