This weekend is my best friend Gretchen�s engagement party. Besides my current resentful feelings toward marriage lately due to the fact that every time I turn around someone is shoving a shiny, new engagement ring in my face, there is something else that is bothering me. Gretchen does not want to get married right now. Every time I mention that she should perhaps pick a place to have the wedding not to mention the date, seeing as though they are getting married in one year, she says something like �Whatever, the stupid date can be changed, I don�t care�. This leads me back to my previous thoughts on why it seems as though the marriage age is getting lower and lower. I have had 3 friends now get married before their 24th birthday, Gretchen was engaged at 22 and I know a girl whose boyfriend proposed to her when she was 20�20! Maybe it is just that I still feel so young. It is always a shock for me when I realize that next year I will be 25. It doesn�t help that I don�t look my age either; often times people think my 15-year-old sister is older than me.

So what is making girls like my best friend feel as though they have to get married, especially if they don�t really want to? Gretchen says she is going through with it because her fianc� REALLY wants to get married. I can see his point, I mean he is almost 24 if he doesn�t act fast no one will have him. As for me I am content with dating at the moment. Who needs to plan a wedding and deal with family when they are applying to business school, working full time and planning a big move? That, and I am pretty sure my boyfriend would rather drive upholstery tacks into his gums before asking me to marry him at this point in our relationship. I however would like to think of it as my decision to remain unwed�thank you.