Imagine: the hot Tennessee summer causing sweat to pour down my back as I stand next to a brick construct I still can't name. Waiting for space to align in a way that was sure to amaze me. "The Great American Eclipse" printed on the cardstock sunglasses my grandma bought me at Lowe's.

If you experienced the full eclipse like I did, your life is probably not the same. Neither is mine.

The day of the eclipse is the day I proposed to my boyfriend--yes, I proposed to him. And he said yes.

And last week, we told our parents.

Here's a breakdown of what we're both feeling and what our parents and friends said when we told them:

"But you're 19! What's the rush?"

There's no rush. We just wanted to make a commitment to each other that we'd stick around forever--something we were sure of when we became best friends a couple years ago.

"You need to give yourselves time to grow. Maybe you won't even like each other in five years!"

Where I come from, best friends are for life. Friendship isn't determined by how grown up you are, and neither is love. And is growing up together really such a bad idea?

"But you still live three hours away from each other!"

Yeah, we do. And it still sucks, and until we graduate, it will continue to suck.

"Are you sure you're ready?"

Yes.

"Are you pregnant?!"

NO.

But the feedback wasn't all negative. My mom started sketching wedding dresses and cakes in her free time (as a joke, but still). My three-year-old niece randomly brings up the fact that we're getting married and giggles maniacally, which I interpret as a good thing. Our friends who told us this was a bad idea are almost all fully on board. This thing can work.

Getting married young means a cheaper wedding*, more time together, ease in merging our lives and more support when we need it the most--when our adult lives are just starting out.

If you got engaged young too, you probably recognize every bit of what I just typed. Regardless of the multitude of good reasons getting married early is a great thing, people will continue to judge us negatively for this decision, but honestly, that's ok.

Like all my other decisions, I'm not going to make this one based off of what other people think. I'm going to do what I think is best for me, and we'll see how it goes.

*Just an example for this one: after we got engaged, he asked about getting me an engagement ring. Being myself, I gave him a four dollar limit. A couple months later, he gave me the best engagement ring I could have asked for--handmade out of a quarter.