“If you don’t find a husband by the time you graduate from college, you’re never getting married.” Parental wisdom doesn’t get much better than that for women these days. Last week, my friend told me that her parents said this to her during her most recent visit home. We both laughed, sighed and then returned to mocking the girls trying to get tans out by the pool.
Apparently, a lot of people have found that special someone in college. If your life is anything like mine, you’ve noticed the growing number of people getting engaged in the past few months. I’ve already begun the diet to slim down for a bridesmaid dress and started looking at airfares to fly home for a high school friend’s wedding. I’ve been to Bon-Macy’s to check the gift registry and figure out what I can afford to give the happy newlyweds. And after the summer has ended, the bouquets thrown, the thank-you cards received and the pictures of the honeymoon sent, I will sit there, relieved and thankful that I don’t have a rock on my hand.
Now to all of those who have found the special someone of your dreams, best of luck, and I honestly mean that. But now, what do the rest of us do?
Well, not finding someone to marry in college does have drawbacks. For instance, when you’re 80 years old, you won’t have someone to reminisce with about that time Ian Crosswhite traveled three times in one basketball game. Or wait, you could just call your old college roommate and do that.
OK, I’ll think of another drawback. If you marry someone you meet after college, they will not have known what you were like during this time in your life and all the experiences you went through. No wait, that could be a good thing too, especially if your favorite memories involve a keg or a cowboy hat.
Well, there really are perks to getting married right after college, but the point of this column is to entertain those who are not getting married, so I’ll stick to the benefits of the latter. For instance, if you wait to get married, your friends will be able to afford much more expensive gifts. Any woman who’s seen “Sex and the City” knows what kind of good stuff you can score if your friends are in their thirties and successful. Instead of registering for the Target-brand blender, you will be able to register for multiple colors of the KitchenAid mixer.
But the real benefit of waiting to get married is not about the presents. It’s about you. For the first time in your life, you will now be completely on your own. Many people have been financially on their own throughout college, but I’m not talking about money. Leaving college, you will be thrown into a world of complete unknowns, and there won’t be any sort of “IntroDUCKtion” program to help you adjust. Picking a place to live won’t be as easy as taking over your friend’s lease, especially if you move to a new city. Getting together to watch “The Real World” will probably come to an end, because 1) your friends don’t live in the same city and 2) the show has never been as good as when Stephen threw Irene’s stuffed animal into the Puget Sound. Yes, it is time to close this chapter in The Book of Life, but by no means do you have to skip ahead.
Now that the slate is wiped clean and ready for a new adventure, you finally get the chance to follow your dreams. Ever wondered what it was like to live in a city that gets sun for more than three months at a time? Well, now you have the chance to move there. Longed to be a news sportscaster? Now you can go out and be one, instead of just watching “Dream Job” all the time. It won’t all be easy, but it sure is going to be exciting.
Maybe while you’re running around the country following your dreams, you may just actually meet that special someone, who unfortunately wasn’t as easy to find as the weirdo sitting next to you in class. But we all follow different paths, and maybe marriage isn’t even on your path. I watch “The Newlyweds” and can’t help but feel sorry for Nick Lachey, who has yet to realize that Jessica’s brain is never going to be as big as other parts of her body.
So, don’t spend your last eight weeks searching for that special someone at Rennie’s. You have dreams to start following. Keep walking down your own path and I’m guessing that someday your path will collide with someone doing the same thing.