Ever since I began my first “real” job out of college, I have always heard “Wow, you’re getting married young!”, “You sure you want to get married so young?”. This has always been something that  I attempted to ignore but always ended up bothering me.

When Dan and I were on our honeymoon, at a beautiful all-inclusive resort in Mexico, several employees at the resort would say “You look very young to be married” or “You look young, how old are you?”.

Last time I checked, we were both adults. We successfully completed our undergrad degrees. We both have good, well paying, (okay, Dan has a well paying job. Mine just pays.) full time jobs in our desired fields. How many people can say that they are working in the field that they went to school for? Not as many as you’d hope.

We started dating in high school and went to the same college. It would make sense to assume that we were together all of the time in college, but that was never the case for us.

We rarely saw each other during the week for anything but meals. No matter how busy we were, we always made sure to have dinner together. Most of the time, dinner together would mean dinner with all of our roommates as well. We were all close and this was something that I looked forward to ending my night with. Although our suites were across the hall from each other, we would sleep in our own rooms during the week, and then Dan’s room together on the weekends. This routine definitely strengthened our relationship and kept us going strong through college. We respected each other and sent a text or stopped by the others dorm if we were leaving campus, but never once did either one of us feel as though we couldn’t do something. We shared friends, but also had our own.

We weren’t locked away in a room together. We both experienced “college life” and the real world. We did it together and we did it on our own.

We had been dating 6 years when Dan proposed to me. We were both 21 years old at the time. Yes, it had been a topic of discussion for a while before. We had our space. If either one of us wanted someone or something else, we could have gone for it. We chose not too. We chose each other. Twenty months after he proposed, at the age of 23, we got married.

At the age of 22, we planned an elegant and beautiful wedding. We did all of this planning with very little help from others. Not that the help wasn’t there, because it certainly was, but because we wanted to take on this amazing day on our own or close to it.

Other than the questions and comments regarding our age while in Mexico, I’ve had friends say things as well. Those are friends who are single or in new(ish) relationships. What they don’t understand is that if they had started dating their significant other earlier in life, they may be married, engaged or have kids at the age of 23.

Being married or being engaged isn’t right or wrong at a certain age. It’s the relationship itself. Knowing that you want the same or similar things as your significant other is one of the most important things. For example, I could never live in the country. I hate all farm animals and roads with no street lights or lines. I would have never gotten married if my husband was a “country man” who couldn’t live elsewhere. This is something that I would never be able to compromise on. I would never be happy living there and would not expect my husband to live out of his comfort zone if that were the case.

So while age is important for some of the things we do, I stand by my opinion that when it comes to love and marriage, age means nothing. Twenty-three or 103 years old, love is love. It’s all about who you are on your own and who you are together.

My advice to those of you who are in a serious relationship; keep living your life for yourself. Follow YOUR dreams and achieving YOUR goals. If marriage comes your way you’ll know if your ready. When you are ready, don’t miss it. It’s beautiful and fun. Every day is a new adventure..