Is it just me, or is everyone and her sister getting engaged or married?

It seems like every time I get on Facebook or talk to one of my friends, they are telling me someone I know is engaged.

It seems crazy to me that people who are my age (21) or a year or two older already want to settle down and get married.

What is the rush? What happened to plans of traveling the world after graduation, or going to graduate school?

When I came to college, I knew I wanted to get a degree, make new friends and have the time of my life. We only have four years (or five, depending on whom you talk to) of college, and yet people are getting engaged and even married before they get a diploma.

Growing up, I never thought of getting married at such a young age. But all around me, people who are 21, 22 and 23 are getting married. Are people losing sight of their old ambitions and dreams for the sake of getting married because everyone else is?

I think that for a lot of college women, there is a pressure to get married younger that men don’t see as frequently. This pressure comes at us from every direction, especially from friends even when they do not feel like they are

pressuring.

When someone asks you twenty times, “When are you and so and so getting married?” you feel the pressure, even if they are just curious.

In the last year, I have known 10 friends to get married or engaged. I am very happy for them, but at the same time I just do not understand what all of the excitement is about. If you love someone enough to marry them right now, shouldn’t you love them enough to wait and get your life together?

I also feel the pressure from family members. My mom tells me all the time how she wants at least one grandchild each from my sister and me. I know my mom just wants us to find the man of our dreams and settle down but when you tell 21-year-old and 19-year-old girls you want them to have children, it is scary.

Other members of my family keep asking my mom when I am going to get married, and they ask me any time I go back home. With people constantly asking me when I am getting married, it gets a frustrating, and I begin to think about marriage more than any 21-year-old college student should.

I feel like once you have been dating someone for a year and a half or two, everyone starts to think you should get married soon. Why is that? When did it become the norm to get married right out of college?

I think this may just be a Southern thing, but since coming to Ole Miss I have felt more pressure to get engaged or married. I think that marriage is a wonderful thing, but I do not think most people right out of college really know who we are enough to want to share a life with someone else who doesn’t really know who they are either.