by Ashlyn Gerbaz
I know plenty of married couples who met in college and ended up happily married, but I could never imagine a couple wanting to get married in college. My parents married when my father was 28 and my mom was 29. My mom was a nurse at a Denver hospital and my dad was a real estate agent. They were both successful in their careers and had a good path set out for their lives.
Fast forward to 2016, my senior year in high school, and my boyfriend was telling me he wanted to marry me. I was just 18 and absolutely flattered someone was willing to spend their life with me, but just to reiterate, I was 18 and a senior in high school. If you’re curious, that relationship is very over, so you shouldn’t expect to see me walking down the aisle anytime soon.
It just seems weird to me that two people who are so young and have just started their own lives would want to quickly share it with someone else.
“I’m not necessarily against people getting married and being happy in college, I’m just against the idea of putting yourself in a situation where you’re completely dependent on another person, without being sure of where you can be in case the worst were to happen,” CMU student Wonder Wachara said.
CNN did a report on getting married in college and found that the longer a person waits to tie the knot the greater the chances are of that person being in a healthy and successful marriage. While some couples in college may have been high school sweethearts and together for a few years, they are still young and still in school.
“I think it depends on the age,” CMU student Alex Loffert said. “If you’re a non-traditional student or an older student in college I feel like it’s okay to be married, but I don’t think that an 18, or 19, or 20-year-old should be married in college.”
I have a ring that I love, but it only fits on my left-hand ring finger. I’ve been asked a few times if I’m married and the people were serious. I can’t even imagine being married at 19. I’ve just started a new chapter in my life and I finally get to focus on just myself. I get to do the clubs I want, go out when I want and just be completely independent for the first time. Why would I want to be dependent on another person so soon after that?
I don’t understand why someone would get married in college. This is a time to be selfish, free and do what you want. You usually aren’t too financially stable, and you don’t know exactly what you want to do with your life, you just want to go out and party on a Thursday night. My word of advice to you couples out there, wait until there is a good amount of money in your bank account and you are well established in your career of choice to jump into a long term commitment with another person. Focus on the U and focus on you.
