My wife and I met when I was 15 and she was 16. After dating other people and a few years later we ended up getting married at 21 and 22. After 13 years, two kids, and watching many hours of "Star Trek" and "Pride and Prejudice" together we are still happily married with hopefully many more years to come.
My wife and I met when I was 18 and she was 16, online (playing the same video game). We married at 20 and 21.98, and are going on 12 years now.
Here's what my wife wrote a previous time this algorithm was discussed:
"To pre-optimize a future wife, focus on being a man of character. Sacrifice for noble goals, exercise self-discipline, show love to family, especially your mother. To optimize an existing wife, continue to do those things, and also spend a lot of time together, be romantic, communicate honestly and frequently (pursue intimacy; resolve to hold no secrets), and ensure a good sex life for her--which for you means generosity and an eye toward emotion."
followup:
"Over ten, fifteen, twenty years of marriage, the single largest factor in who your wife is, is who you are. And vice versa. Her criticisms become your defensive sore spots. Your generocity becomes her avid interest. Your callousness becomes her indifference. Her complacency becomes your disinterest. And on and on. After many years, every groove in your soul matches a cusp in hers, and vice versa. There's feedback. There's resonance. That's why the quality of your wife is 120% you.
You grow to be like who you hang out with. You rise to high expectations or sink to low ones
....
To optimize your wife, optimize yourself. Because marriage is really long, and after just a few years, she's mostly who you've made her."
My story is almost exactly like yours. Met at 15, married at 22. We are only married for 1 years now though, though we've been living together for 6 :)
