I dated a bunch of jerks until I met the guy I married. He dated a bunch of jerks (and married and divorced one of them) until he met me. We fit well.
For me, the best part of being married (besides the sex, which is great) is being part of a team. There are some things I will just never be very good at, such as dealing with bureaucracy, fixing things, spider removal, and managing the 401k. He’s tops at all of that! And there are things that he’s pretty bad at, such as cooking (you should SEE what he ate when he was single!), planning things efficiently, packing (boxes and luggage), where I excel. Together we are more than the sum of our parts.
There’s also always someone there to snuggle with at night. There’s someone to hang out with. There’s someone who knows me – REALLY knows me – who is my best friend. He calls me out on my bull$hit (and vice versa). We have some similar interests (but not enough similar so as we’re stepping into each others’ business all the time). We’re different enough that we learn from each other.
I suppose these aren’t good things about the state of being married – not everyone gets as good a deal as I did when I married him. But if you’re married to someone who fits you well, it ROCKS!
On the other hand, there are downsides. I’m not nearly as spontaneous as I used to be. I used to just go do stuff whenever I wanted (schedule permitting), but he’s a homebody so we often just sit on the computer in the evenings. We get on each others’ nerves now and then, and yes we do fight. (We blow up in big fury, but then we talk it out not too long after.) It’s sometimes grating to have him there All The Time. Little things like the way he doesn’t refill the toilet paper can get to be big things. I think this happens to all couples – irksome things become maddening things.
Marriage is an investment. You have to look at the cost vs the benefits, and those will be different for every couple. Me, I think my return on investment was quite high, and all these things are worth trading for me to have my sweetie around for the duration.