I am currently in my last year of college and I have been noticing many of my sorority sister and other friends are starting to get engaged. I would love to be engaged one day, but we all don’t get what we want when we want it. My slight jealousy has caused me to consider when is a good time to get engaged?
Perhaps in this situation a better question would be, when is a good time to get married? I say that because an engagement is simply a promise and a step toward getting married. Being engaged doesn’t always mean you will get married. It only means that you have real intentions to do so. Getting married doesn’t mean that you will stay married. Also, there are individuals who stay engaged for extended amounts of times maybe even as long as 10 or 12 years. With factors like this I am forced to wonder does being engaged even matter?
For the purpose of this discussion let’s ignore engagement because during that time there is no legal document to keep a couple together or even make it hard for them to split. Last year I wrote a 20-page research paper on the relationship between substance abuse and divorce. During the research process I was forced to look at documents that explored reasons why people get divorced as well as what types of people are likely to stay married.
I found the answer to the question of when is a good age to get married to be interesting. One study showed that between the ages of 23 and 29 were the best times to get married. Another study simply showed the older you are the more likely it is that your marriage won’t end in divorce. There are many articles that show 25 and older is a great age.
I guess we all have to decide for ourselves. We have one life to live and we should live it as an individual and not for society. So, to all of my friends who are headed down the aisle soon, I wish you all good luck in your marriage.