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# After 27 Years, What Makes Someone Your Person?
- URL: https://www.mikebakerhq.com/podcast/after-27-years-what-makes-someone-your-person/
- Published: 2026-10-05T09:20:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-14T15:48:06.000Z
- Description: Kellie and I heard a Tolkien line about marriage at a celebration of life the day before our 27th anniversary. What actually makes someone your person after decades together? Season 2, Episode 18 of Still Here, Still Trying.
- Author: Mike Baker
- Tags: Human First, Podcast, #hero-uncropped

Season 2 · Episode 18 · October 5, 2026 · 25 min

[Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDaq1jmzmPE) [Listen on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/4UoRr5gHJP3c5Lz9IF4LCk) [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/after-27-years-what-makes-someone-your-person/id1826938874?i=1000793218127) 

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## Show notes

Today is our 27th wedding anniversary.

Yesterday, Kellie and I attended a celebration of life for a couple who had been married for 66 years. During the service, someone shared a J.R.R. Tolkien quote about marriage that followed both of us home:

“Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes… But the ‘real soul-mate’ is the one you are actually married to.”

That is a hell of a thing to hear together the day before your own anniversary.

In this episode, I think about what actually makes someone your person after decades together. We talk about soulmates, compatibility, the people Kellie and I were when we married at 23, the people we have become since, and why a long marriage still requires curiosity about the person beside you.

I also discovered that I’ve apparently been doing anniversary math wrong all year. Today marks 27 completed years and the beginning of year 28.

I fully intend to start saying 28 sometime this week anyway.

And stick around until the end. I wrote Kellie a surprise anniversary song that she has not heard yet.

I hope she likes it.

Otherwise, I might not make it to 28 after all.

This episode of Still Here, Still Trying is sponsored by Shaka Electric, serving North Idaho, and by Renewed Strength Pilates, Kellie Baker’s Pilates studio.