I got engaged in July. The day after he proposed, we called our family and closest friends and told them the news. We were overjoyed! Life plans we had always talked about were finally coming to pass, and we lived out the rest of our vacation week in pure bliss.

We were still excited. We were making plans. We were trying to wrap our heads around this beautiful new time in our lives. But as soon as I went off to school to begin my senior year, things changed.

I went into my first class of the day and the awkward "introduce yourself and one awesome thing that you did this summer" prompt was initiated. As the students in my class went around saying their names and describing the fun they had during the summer, my mind began to race.

I couldn't tell them I got engaged.

It wasn't because I wasn't happy or excited anymore; I was remembering the treatment of another young woman that occurred only a year prior.

In every class, this young woman had introduced herself and announced to the class she was engaged. After breaks, in response to "what did you do over Thanksgiving" prompts, she would talk about the plans she was making for her wedding. She was so incredibly excited to begin her new life with her one-day husband.

And our classmates hated it.

Students would roll their eyes or look at their desks when she spoke about her happiness. After class, statements such as "Literally all she talks about is getting married" and "We get it. You're engaged" were tossed around. It didn't matter who was doing the talking; students who were in relationships and students who were single bashed this young woman's happiness. I'll admit myself to allowing the jealousy to consume me; she was where I wanted to be and I wish I could have been doing all the wedding things she was doing.

So as I sat in my classes as a newly engaged young woman, I kept my happiness to myself. I responded with "My name is Allie. I'm a senior English Education major. I went to Hilton Head this summer." I didn't say that the island now held a special place in my heart.

Looking back, I wish I had. I wish I had had the courage of the young now-married woman to embrace the source of my happiness. I wish I had been strong enough like her to say what I was really feeling, to answer honestly about the exciting things I had done while I wasn't at school.

But even now, only a month after classes have begun, I'm still afraid. Society has embraced the single life and told young people that being alone is a wonderful time . . . and it is! I hope my single friends are enjoying their time of exploration and are learning more about themselves and finding confidence in their awesomeness! But while society has shown the world that being single is incredible, it has also shoved jealousy into our hearts. I can't be openly happy about my relationship without fear of quiet criticism from the people around me. I can't talk about my wedding plans and ask for help from friends without feeling like I'm "bragging."

Perhaps it is in fact my own fault. I may not yet be confident enough in my own self to show the world how happy I really am. Maybe the adult self that I have convinced to be so self-reliant really is still concerned about what the world thinks about her. Maybe I still have a lot of work to do...

But so do you. We can't go around loathing the happy lives of others and then expect them to be overjoyed when our own happy times come. We need to learn to find joy in other people's happiness and to rejoice when they rejoice.

Maybe then we'll be like my courageous classmate: so incredibly happy on the inside and out and wishing to genuinely share that joy with others.