Nice read Kaitlin.  It takes me back to when I was first married to my wife, way back in 19...    Well it was a few years ago now,  She was 17, and I had just turned 20.  We had no other reason to be married at the time except that i was in the military  and was being stationed hundreds of miles away and we really wanted to be together.

All of our friends and family were against it, but we did it anyway (eloped).  My income back in 1986 was 600 bucks a month, and no the cost of living was not THAT much different back then.  We lived in a 200 dollar a month apartment all bills paid, and ate a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

At the time we lived in Mississippi and my family and hers was in Texas, so all we had was each other, no money and well, each other.  It was awesome.  I think you are right that when a young couple is forced to live together in such a way it creates a sort of concrete bond -- or kills both of them in some way.  

For us, it was a bond that would take us through the hardest times around years 5, 7, 10 and 14.   Tenacity is somehow sewn in the bones from these experiences.  Looking back, you are also correct, we wouldn't have had it any other way.

Thanks again for the post.  It brings back some good memories.  Like the times that I taught her how to drive in a crappy old truck with a three speed shifter on the floor and a motor that was too big and too powerful to ease off the clutch going up and down some crazy hills leading up to dangerous busy intersections.  :)