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| Courtesy of New Line Cinema |
Last year I attended an engagement party. I was a freshman in college and a friend of a friend was getting married. On a whirlwind trip to Barcelona, her boyfriend of four years popped the question. Keep in mind she was my age, 19 years old.
My first question was whether the bride-to-be was pregnant.
No, no just in love.
The couple assured everyone it would be a long engagement and they wouldn't tie the knot until after graduation.I was still puzzled as to what the hurry was.
I hardly know anyone whose parents are still married, and those friends are unsure about the institution of marriage. And yet people my age and younger have been getting hitched.
The other day another girl from my old university (21 years old) got married. My sister's old classmate from Uzbekistan is now a 19 year-old wife.
According to BBC News marriages in England and Wales are up by 3.7% while Mail Online reports that the divorce rate has fallen by a quarter. The highest number of marriages have been between men and women aged 25-29, and the largest increase has been in marriages between men aged 45-49 and women 30-34. The number of same-sex civil partnerships has risen by 2%.
The Office of National Statistics (ONS) theorizes that these statistics are due to a decrease in marriages abroad, possibly catalyzed by the recession. People are also waiting longer to get married, which unlike couples who marry young, have a lower chance of divorce.
When my dad proposed to my mom at the movies twenty-something years ago, she said no. She still wanted to have fun and wasn't ready yet. Of course she later took him up on his offer and they've been man and wife ever since. When people ask what their secret is, my parents insist it's the little things. You don't need an occasion to give a gift, my dad always says. My mom overcomes her hatred of cooking when my dad's had a long day. "We've had our lows," my mom tells me, "but we've either been too happy or dumb to notice."
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