4 weddings and a 21st

I will never cease to be absolutely and utterly dumbfounded at the rate at which people my age are getting married.

In my opinion, (and, silly me, I thought it was not just my opinon but standard practice...obviously not!), you're supposed to have a glut of 21sts...then a break of 3-5 years, then a glut of weddings. People forgot about the break! I only stopped going to 21sts a year ago...! In fact, I have a 21st coming up! There is no gap whatsoever! Argh!! I should note that I'm not expecting invitations to any of these impending nuptials. Nevertheless, it still floors me.

Firstly because we're 23 (or will be when the time rolls around). Hello!?! I mean, I know I thought my ideal age of marriage was 24 back when I was 15 or whatever (geez, that was a long time ago...), but that was before I knew anything. Before I figured that marriage at 24 implies that if you do a 5 year uni degree, you'll only have been out of uni one year before you get hitched, and before I figured that you don't have a particularly great choice of home locations on a combined salary of less than $90K per year.

Secondly, it's funny, because at the same time as all these 23 year old spring chickens are getting married, the 28-29-30 year old tougher birds which make up the bulk of my sister's peer group are also getting married. Funny to see how quickly the values of generations change...can it really turn over so fast!? Go from being "I'm not getting married til I'm 30 at least!" to "I want to settle down at 23!" in half a decade?? (Though to be fair, for a lot of my sister's friends getting married, they didn't find the right person til fairly recently, and none of them have been dating for that long. Two years is probably the most any of them has been dating, including engagement period.)

Thirdly, I've been with my bf for longer than all these people getting hitched. And before you point it out, no, their prospective husbands aren't fossils that feel the need to get married lest their non-existent male biological clocks run out. These prospective husbands are all within a year of their prospective 23-year-old wives. What gives?! Why the hurry!?!? I don't understand.

Not that I am trying to get people to justify their decisions for me (because I know that every single one of them is an avid reader of my blog of dwindling readership!...heh, not.) But I just don't get it. Sure, I understand how nice it would be to live out of home in a nice little apartment somewhere which bf and I could call our own. And I understand how great it would be to come home to your husband/wife in an idyll of domestic bliss. And, particularly because I've always been one for forward looking, I understand the joy in starting your future together ASAP, especially when you know neither one is going anywhere voluntarily.

But don't practicalities get in the way?

I suppose, as bf and I once discussed, it's a matter of how many ducks you want in a row. For those who haven't heard of our "ducks" theory, it's this: you have several ducks which you have the option of lining up before you take the marriage plunge. One duck might be called "Savings". Another might be "Property". Another might be "Job", etc etc. Obviously, lining up just one "Job" duck is easier than hearding the "Savings", "Property" AND "Job" ducks into the requisite army ranks.

Who knows. At the end of the day, everyone is gonna follow their own destiny, and if you destiny includes marriage at a relatively young age then more power to you I say!

(I'm still dumbfounded tho...)