I am a bit suprised that there are a lot of people that I graduated high school with that are married already, and I'm (almost) 22.

What bothers me is when people are rushing in to marriage because they like the idea of it (or that's my assumption of why they're rushing). If you are together, and plan on staying together, why do you need to rush into getting married? My 18 year old cousin just got married to a girl he knew for less than 6 months. And this was after the his ex broke up with him after he proposed. How can you want to marry two different people in the course of 6 months? Marriage is a huge decision! I have two 15 year old cousins that are "engaged" and they've each been dating their boyfriends for less than 4 months. Rich's 19 year old cousin got married last year and is due for her first baby soon.

It's crazy. People constantly ask Rich and I when we'll get married, but I feel like 22 is too young. I would at least like us both to finish school (he's done, I have one more year) and get a job in our field. Plus, I have NO idea how these young'ins afford a wedding (if they have one). I'm thinking about all of my student loans and when I start paying them off it's going to be $300 a month...I have no idea how we would be able to EACH pay $300/month on the loans, pay rent (or down payment + mortgage), bills, cars, etc and afford a wedding.

I think that's why the divorce rate is so high. There are stories of people marrying young and staying together forever, but I don't think that that's the norm. I think too many people are rushing in to it for wrong reasons. I had another cousin get married at 18 so they could get on welfare. Or my brother got married because (well, he won't admit this was the reason) his gf got kicked off of her parent's insurance, she's extremely diabetic, and he was joining the Air Force and she would get benefits too.

But hey, it's not my life To each their own.