I honestly thought I had a couple more years until everyone I went to high school with started getting married and having children, but the time has come… so much earlier than I had anticipated. I thought this would happen closer to my 30’s, not in my early 20’s! I'm sure you think that this article is going to be about me bashing young couples or young parents, but it is nothing like that at all. I want it, marriage and babies, I want all of those things, but I am nowhere close to any of those things happening to me at this point in my life and it seriously stresses me out that so many people my age are ready to do all those things.
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I am happy for everyone this is happening to, probably too happy for any sane person to be. I love seeing couples getting engaged, ready to get married and start the rest of their lives, well hopefully, together. I love going on Facebook and Instagram and seeing all the cute proposals, followed by the gorgeous wedding pictures, and then seeing those followed by romantic honeymoon pictures, seriously I love it. I love weddings, the whole idea of being bound in love with someone is just so beautiful and hopeful to me. I have a Pinterest board dedicated to my future wedding, so whenever I get engaged, I am armed and ready to go DIY crazy on that.
Ugh and the babies, all the cute pregnancy announcement followed by even more precious baby pictures. I love babies, seriously love them, I love seeing my friends with their little baby bump and then watching the baby grow up. Baby fever is so real, but I must push it to the side, restrain that fever, and wait until I’m finished with school and mature enough to have one. Right now I love eating snow cones and gulping Dunkin Doughnuts iced coffee by the gallons just to make it through a week of classes-- there’s no way I could juggle all that and a child (I know lots of people do, and kudos to you-- I know how hard it is to do).
As the more people I know begin their lives together, it makes me realize that one day most likely that will be me and I am nowhere near ready for it to happen yet. That realization stresses me out, should I be ready right now, is there a reason this isn’t happening to me yet? I am in a good, long-term relationship, could I be acting selfish by focusing on finishing college so I can have, hopefully, a well-paying career? Seeing everyone starting their life sets in some kind of weird competitive peer pressure thing for me, making me question everything I am doing. I realize that part of my stressing out is an extreme over reaction to me overthinking this whole situation and everyone, myself included, deserve to do whatever you want in their life, whenever they want to do it.
