I'm Erin, and I'm engaged! I've been engaged for almost a whole year now. It's been one of the most exciting times in my whole life. Yes, I'm only 20 right now, but I will be 21 when I finally marry my best friend.

By the time I get married, I will have been engaged for 826 days.

Let me say that again. 826 days of engagement.

Does that frustrate you? Does that unsettle you for some reason?

Let me ask you, why?

Why does my engagement period matter at all to you?

I am happy. Most people who know me will tell me, "I'm just happy that you're happy!" But if that's the case, then why does it matter that I will be engaged for over two years before I get married?

Because it's not the "norm."

I've been told time and time again that I shouldn't be engaged for more than __ months (sometimes this is 6 months, sometimes it's 12).

But why does it bother so many people if I'm the one getting married, not them?

I'm the type of person that if you tell me not to do something, I will do it anyway. I go against the grain.

I do not usually do what everyone else does. I'm stubborn and will do what I think is best.

And being engaged for 826 days before I get married is what I think is best for myself and for my fiancé. I'm in college, and my fiancé is on the verge of graduating. When he graduates, he will move an hour and 15 minutes away and start working. By the time that we get married, I will still have one whole year left of college.

Waiting to get married is the best decision for us.

I will never, ever regret getting engaged early on in our relationship. It didn't seem too early to me, and it still doesn't seem that way. If I had gotten married in the summer after getting engaged, my family would have freaked. After all, I only knew this man for 3 months before getting engaged to him.

So some people say, "Why didn't you wait a year to get engaged so that the engagement could've been shorter?"

Well, that's really none of your business.

We got engaged when we felt it was right. Why wait to get engaged if you already know that you want to marry the person? What's so bad about being engaged a little longer?

After all, people STILL congratulate me on our engagement, even after almost a year of having the ring.

And in the end, it is me getting married, not the 200 other people who question my sanity for having a long engagement.

It's not as though I chose a long engagement so that I could "have time to back out if need be." (yes, someone ACTUALLY said that to me).

We agreed to have a long engagement and get to know each other even better so that we could sort everything out and have plenty of time to plan the most amazing, beautiful wedding that we possibly could.

And now that we've waited, my family adores my fiancé more than I could've ever imagined. They've had plenty of time to get to know him and grow to love him.

It shouldn't matter when we get married or how big the gap of time is between our engagement and our wedding.

What should matter is supporting those you love.