We have so many reasons for everything that we do and people always have something to say. Some sort of criticism or comments about what you are doing. I found that the topic of getting married at a young age was one of those topics that people just felt the need to share their opinion. My husband and I met when I was 20, he was 17… I wasn’t so sure dating was a good idea, I mean he was just graduating high school. I was older, it was a little weird and on top of that, there was what people were thinking and saying about it. It wasn’t always heard, what they had to say but I could imagine. I couldn’t help it though, he was hardworking, caring and handsome of course. He was a man of God with a passion for teaching and reaching kids. We met at a youth camp as leaders, and we shared that passion and we grew in that passion for teaching kids about God.
Our age was something that was always “weird”. There’s a certain stigma around getting married young in this era. People these days are more open to casual relationships, settling down isn’t really a priority. Young people are focused on their careers and getting set into their lives before even thinking about settling down, which isn’t bad, getting a career is important, don’t get me wrong. The impression, however, is that people see it as one way or another, either get married or have a career. I discovered it doesn’t have to be that way, I’ve worked for and am still working on the career part but the best part is I have my husband to be there and support me along the way. So I thought I would share with you guys My Top 3 Reasons for why we got married young.
We have forever.
Those couples you see or hear about who have been married for 60 or more years, those are the couples we aspire to. Getting married young gives us our whole lives together. Yes, we can be together for years and then get married later, but why wait. I don’t think marriage gets easier the older you are. It takes the same amount of work to make a marriage work at 19 as it does at 35. Starting our life together earlier just gives us more years to create a lasting marriage and wonderful memories along the way.
Building great habits together.
By starting a life together sooner we can work at building up good habits together instead of trying to break the individual habits we’ve accumulated. This reason has more to do with being able to live together, being able to combine 2 peoples lifestyles together which was something I happened to worry about. I like things my way, and so did he. Bachelors live a very different lifestyle than single women. They are messy and don’t see household duties the same way women do. We get set in our ways as we grow up and move out, live with roommates or alone, we start to build those habits. When you get married and you have to combine lifestyles not all habits work with your spouse. For example, my habit of leaving everything plugged in, my charger, my electric blanket, flat iron, blow dryer, literally everything. That habit went against everything my husband knew, fire safety and all. It took many tries and many overreactions before we built a suitable habit for both of us, a compromise so to say. I’m 8 months pregnant right now so we’ve been working on building good habits so that when the baby comes we will be able to maintain them despite the big change. By getting married young we have been able to build good habits that we can maintain even when life throws new things at us.
Dreams and Goals.
My last top reason for getting married young is being able to do all those things you want to do with your life, but with someone you can share it with forever. Your bucket list, career aspirations, any traveling or dreams you have, you have a constant supporter, your biggest fan with you always. The career I planned for takes a lot of dedication and intelligence, sometimes more than I think I’m capable of. Working out the logistics and everything required for my long-term goals can be exhausting and a bit discouraging but having my husband by my side, cheering me on and telling me how capable I am when I don’t think I am is the greatest feeling and encouragement. We are also able to make some of those big career goals and plans together. There are dreams and goals I’ve made in the last year that I never thought would be something I would want. Together we can push each and encourage each other to make goals and dream about things and ideas that we think are above us or impossible. I couldn’t imagine making all these life changing decisions and then meeting my husband and having everything change so drastically, but that’s just me. Being able to think it up and work through it together has been wonderful for us. Those are my top 3 reasons for getting married young. There are many more reasons I’m sure, different for each of us. These reasons are the most important ones for me, they’ve allowed us to grow and mature together. We are able to push each other towards our dreams when we think they are impossible. We can build new dreams and goals together that I didn’t think I’d ever want. Those are my top 3 reasons, I have so many more and it has been quite the adventure so far and I’m so excited for the many more to come. I’d love to hear from you guys and some of the reasons you and your significant other decided to get married when you did, leave it in the comments below and make sure to share this with your friends. Live courageously, love Crystal.
