I've been dating my boyfriend for three years, which is wonderful, but after three years, everyone always asks "When are you guys going to get married?" And it gets old fast. There's no need to get married in college, and people need to stop assuming that for every woman, going to college will lead to marriage.

The importance placed on marriage to women needs to be left in the past. It's the 21st century; why is it so hard to let women live the lives they want? In today's society, there is no need to assume that all women want or even need to get married to be happy.

The stereotype of the Mrs. Degree needs to be forgotten. Women aren't going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a degree only to find a husband and never use the degree. Women wouldn't pick a major and work hard to earn a degree in a field they love and genuinely interests them if they only cared about getting married. No one should waste their time and money working on earning a degree only to ditch everything for a man.

It's insulting to women to assume that all they want out of college is to find a husband and never work. Women already face discrimination in the workplace because there is the assumption that they will one day leave their position in order to have a child and start a family. The discrimination doesn't need to start in college classes.

There's a pressure put on women that if they graduate college without dating someone long-term, then there is no way for them to find love. There are ways to find the person that you'll spend your life with outside of college. College is stressful enough without the pressure of others to find someone to spend the rest of your life with.

College-aged women deserve so much more than what college men will give them. Most college guys aren't even ready to think about marriage, let alone any relationship that might last longer than a few months. If the men that they're dating aren't on the same page, then how is every single college-aged women expected to find a man to marry?

There's such a double statement that exists between men and women when it comes to relationships. Men don't have to worry about getting married and the expectation to start a family. Men can stay single for as long as they want without the judgment of others affecting the way that they live their life, but women can't avoid the expectations of others.

I, for one, do not want to get married until after I finish college, and even then I wouldn't stop my career just because I got married. Women shouldn't be expected to get married in order to be happy. Going to college and graduating is a big deal, and it shouldn't be overshadowed by the idea of marriage and the expectation of others to start a family. Women work hard in college and their careers, and they shouldn't feel that they haven't done enough because they aren't married.

It's the 21st century; stop pushing your outdated expectations about how life should go on women.