I used to think that young love was a joke. That a marriage between two people younger than 25 would never last. I used to freak out whenever I heard the words “I love you” in any form or fashion. Whenever my friends talked to me about taking a relationship to the next step my immediate response was, “Are you sure about that? You’re still pretty young.” Talking about love and marriage freaked me out.
It was ironic that I felt this way. In the past people got married as young as birth for centuries. My sister and her boyfriend have been dating for like five years and counting. My very own mother got married to my father when she was only 20 years old and my parents are the happiest couple I have ever met.
It isn’t just young love that freaks me out, it is the concept of marriage in general, spending a life time with just one person. I understand why it makes me feel the way that I do. It is partially because I have not met someone that makes me feel as though I need to spend a lifetime with them. Another reason is because I am just scared of completely trusting myself to be in the hands of just one other person. I have seen my sister and her boyfriend date for the longest time and there is no doubt in anyone’s minds that they are going to end up together, but whenever it it brought up, I still cringe. It isn’t because I believe that they are not a good couple or that they are going to regret their decision later; its because I can fathom what it is like to not have the ability to openly get to know other people and test out the many fish out and about in the world.
My Facebook feed was always full of numerous articles on the premise of young marriages and pictures of my high school classmates getting married before they are of legal drinking age. I would just laugh at these posts. I even used to make bets with my friend about how long the marriage would last.
When my best friend, Ashley, called me to tell me she had gotten engaged to her new husband, my first response was apprehension. I was scared. I started to think many negative thoughts. I was terrified that they haven’t been dating for long enough. I was terrified that she would end up unhappy. I was terrified that they would get a divorce. Of course I didn’t vocalize any of these feelings to her; I just told her how happy I was for her and how excited I was for her to take on this new journey. After I hung the phone up I started to tear up. Even though I knew Ashley was one to get married young, I was still nervous about the whole situation.
I talked to my friends about how apprehensive I was about the situation. They could tell I was freaked out, especially the last week leading up to the wedding. The day before the rehearsal dinner, I couldn’t sleep. I was just so nervous about the whole situation. I didn’t get why anyone would logically make the decision to get married so young.
But as I stood in my pink bridesmaid dress in front of all of Ashley’s friends and family and saw her father walk her down the isle in her white gown on Sunday, I realized that there is no logic behind it. The whole premise behind love is that there is nothing logical about it. Ashley was happy because Logan made her happy and that is all that mattered. Even though the statistics are against them, it shouldn’t matter because they truly do love each other and will make it work. Marriage is about just that, not about age, race, gender. It is just two people who cannot image themselves living without each other. Two people that are willing to sacrifice their own life for their partner. Two people that complete each other.
