Tied Down

This post has nothing to do with work except for the fact that the conversation started in the carpool on the way home. Two of the people in the carpool are not married and a bit younger than me and the other person in the carpool is married and slightly older than me by maybe a couple of years. So the conversation started with the usual "So any plans for the night?" It's almost routine at this point.

I said I wasn't doing anything but relaxing at home. Then the guy who is married in the carpool said that he and his wife are going out to celebrate their "regular" anniversary. By regular I mean the anniversary that marks when they first got together rather than their wedding anniversary.

So, the guy in the carpool who isn't married asked what the point was. Apparently they are marking eight years together. Good for them! (No, that is not sarcasm.) Both the single people didn't understand why anyone would bother after that long.

So I brought up that Master and I have been together for nine years and it's always worth celebrating. They didn't get it. They asked how long the married guy and his wife had been married. They are coming up on two years of marriage in November.

They asked me and I told them five years. The girl in the carpool asked how old I was when we got married. I told her I was 24 years old at the time. She is 22 and said she couldn't imagine being "tied down" at that young of an age.

All I said was that it's not being tied down if you really love that person and the wedding just makes it "official".

It wouldn't have mattered if we got married or not. I'm sure Master and I would still be together to this day. I also know that I am very, very happy that we did get married and that we've reached the milestones that we have. It's hard to believe that it'll be a decade next year.

I sometimes wonder why people who are younger than me think it's a bad idea to get married so young. I personally did not feel I was "too young" to get married. I remember a friend of ours at the time of the wedding saying no one should get married before they are 30. Why? I have no idea.

I guess with the family I have it just seems normal to get married younger than 25.

My parents got married at 19. They were high school sweethearts. They lasted 25 years before my dad decided he wanted a divorce. My paternal grandparents got married when they were 18. They were together until my grandmother passed away at the young age of 54. My grandfather never got remarried or even thought about dating. She was his one and only. My great grandparents were married right out of high school and were together ever since. When they died my great-grandmother was 91 and my great-grandfather was 89. They died at the same time.

My brother is the only one who hasn't been married. He is 26. Although he is starting to talk about getting married to his current girlfriend. They haven't even been together for a year yet though and aren't living together so I just told him to wait until after they are living together and then think about it. To me it makes more sense to live together first so you know whether or not you can stand that person 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.