Marriage Craze

It seems like a marriage epidemic around me. Everyone and their mom's are getting married. I received a few "Save the Date" cards from people from highschool. Then, just last week I ran into Patty (she's a year younger) who told me that she was now engaged and getting married in August. I'm pretty impressed that she can handle going to school and preparing for the wedding in such short time. But the funny thing is that when I met her last semester she told me that she had just met her boyfriend in the beginning of the semester and all that she could ever say about him was that, "He's a genius. No, I'm serious, he's a genius according to the IQ test. He makes like over $100,000 a year so it'll be okay if I make nothing. My dream is for us to get married before I graduate. I mean, it is time, we have been dating for a few months and I think it's time for him to propose." Of course I thought that was funny because they've been dating for just a few months and she already stresses the, "It's time" comment. Well, he had apparently proposed to her over Xmas break which means that they had been dating for less than 5 months. I swear, if I used the "it's time" comment then I'd be owed like almost 5 proposals!

Not that I'm doubting if they're right for each other or not but I've just been wondering lately if the drive for marriage is different once you've graduated college? I rarely hear these girls gushing over their significant others, about how great they are, how everytime they're around they're like on a different planet, or how they just complete one another. It's now just always the it's time comments. It just seems like once you graduate, the next boyfriend you get is supposed to be your husband, regardless if they're that one. It kinda seems like they're okay with someone just fitting the part. I mean even with a few of my girlfriends, they've stressed being afraid of never getting married and that when they get another boyfriend, they're pretty certain that it'll be the winner. To me, I find that kind of depressing, that you're just giving into the next thing just because you're too afraid to wait around. Not that I'm pointing fingers and saying that it is wrong and that everyone who's getting married now is doing so for the wrong reasons. I just would like to hear people say that they're completely gaga over their men and not because they've been dating for a certain set amount of time and it is obviously time for the question to be asked. I understand that there is a need to have certain steps that you need to go through in order to accomplish a task but I don't think that should be applied to your love life. It goes how it goes, sometimes it can be up & down, sometimes it can be stagnant, then at times it can feel like you're riding a shooting star. I just think that we should be open to the joys and the possible pains, after all, that is part of life. It does suck to get hurt but without it, how else would we ever feel great love and happiness? Okay, I'm just rambling now, it's just been some thoughts that I've been having lately. I'm just wondering if it's really better to just get married at the first chance just so that you can close the doors on ever having to explore and getting hit with whatever comes its way.