When I see you at this year’s Family Christmas Party, feel free to ask me about my boyfriend. I want to tell you all about the adventures we’ve had since I have seen you last, and all the plans we have made and I want to tell you how happy we are. Feel free to make him the butt of few jokes, it makes me feel like you want to include him. Feel free to crack a joke and sarcastically say “I can’t believe you two aren’t married yet.” But when I seriously reply with “We would be if we could,” don’t look at me like you’ve just seen a ghost.

Please don’t ask, “Already? But you’re so young! Don’t you want to travel? Don’t you want to have a better job?” No. I just want to get married and work at a movie theater until I’m 97. (Sense my sarcasm?) Of course, I want to travel. Of course, I want to have a better job.

I want to do all those things… with my husband. I have been with my boyfriend for two years. We are both in college, we both work and we both have good heads on our shoulders. We have talked about it and we both want to get married. When I say that we want to get married, we don’t mean tomorrow. That’s not rational, and I know that. We don’t have our degrees, we don’t have our own place, we just don’t have a way to make that possible yet. But when we do have the funds and are in the right spot, we want it to happen.

Please don’t try to talk me out of it. I know how I would like to live my life and whom I would like to live it with. Don’t try to coerce me with your wisdom, it’s only going to embarrass the both of us. Please, just smile and nod if you don’t have anything nice to say. These holidays are not the time for you to express your disdain in my life choices, no matter how much you might want to. Please just be thankful for the time we are all getting to be together and enjoy all the memories we are creating. And, I guess if you want to keep trying to tell me how you feel, you just won’t get invited to the wedding.

Sincerely,

Young and In Love and Unconcerned with Your Opinion