Race For the Ring

     I can think of few women who don't dream of wedded bliss at some point in their adult lives. Some young women make it a mission to get married. Which makes me ask the question: When did it become acceptable to pressure a man to marry you?

The bride

     When I was in college, I had a sorority sister who really wanted to get married. She was around twenty three years old as the time and felt that she should be at least engaged. This internal push to get married led her to procure a ring by rather unorthodox tactics. We would sometimes have mixers with her boyfriend's fraternity and he would call to talk our social chair. On one occasion, she asked our chair to ask him if he was going to propose around Christmas. Another example of her marital campaigning was that she would get on her boyfriend's computer and create her dream wedding ring on the De Beers website. She would let his screen saver appear so that when he touched his computer it would be the first thing he saw. Keep in mind that she was smart, beautiful, and accomplished. Her antics left me scratching my then nineteen year old head. I couldn't make sense of why she was acting so desperate. They eventually broke up and adding insult to injury, he took the money he was going to use for the ring to buy a sports car. My sorority sister got the last laugh: He ended up crashing the car.

One Ring to Rule Them All

     At the age of twenty-nine, I have no intention of getting married or engaged. For those who are either, I'm happy for them. To find someone to spend the rest of your life with is a great thing. As for me, I'm simply not ready. I'm fine with being in a relationship, but anything more binding is too much for me. Personally, I was would like to start considering marriage at thirty-five. What's the rush?

    
     Marriage is a beautiful thing. It's two people committing themselves to one another for the rest their lives. This should not be a rushed process, but not necessarily taken at a snail's pace. A decision such as this one requires thought, not a stopwatch.