Firstly, relax…I’m not talking about myself here. I’m a long way off from that.

I’ve been caught in a weird place these last few weeks. Recently I was on Facebook and noticed one of my friend’s status changed from ‘In a relationship’ to ‘Engaged’. Came as a bit of a surprise to me. I guess being over here in America removes you from the loop a little bit, and as much as you try to keep up with what’s going on at home, there’s still things you’ll miss.

It’s still a new thing for me to have a friend that’s engaged to be married. I know it happens all the time, but somewhere along the line I’ve slipped into that age group where your friends around you are getting married. Granted, the ones involved are older than me (well…actually the guy is around the same age) but still I feel like the whole world is changing around me and life never sits still.

So I’m busy musing all this over when I notice on Bebo that an ex-girlfriend of mine is now married too. And she was only six months older than me. Scary. For me, it seems too young but I suppose there’s no perfect age to get married. A lot of things can change so fast and you don’t even realise. In a way it’s sorta sad that I get most of my information from social networking sites these days.

Today, again I was on Facebook and there’s another status update. Two friends of mine from university, who I thought were just good friends, are now engaged too. Of course, my first flippant reaction was that the whole world is getting married and clearly I’ve missed something. It’s a huge step to get married, because you’re essentially sacrificing your own freedom for the happiness and benefits found with sharing life with someone you love. I know that my friends haven’t taken the decision to wed without serious thought first, yet it makes me feel both young and old at the same time.

I’m still young, and I know that marriage should be way down my list of priorities but I’m reminded of the old proverb that if you haven’t found the person for you by the time you leave university then it becomes much more difficult. When I come back home, my full time education will only last one more year so if this theory holds true then I’m short on time. Taking a risk and moving country was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. But nothing worthwhile is easy, and I’m so glad I did it. As a friend of mine once said “I’m fed up with being safe and discontent. At least if I take a risk and it doesn’t work out, I can say I’ve tried”. I went through the same thing - at home I had it easy, but I was still discontent. I couldn’t have picked a better opportunity. I’m in the middle of California, I have a whole year and every day is different for me. My life here is totally different to back home and at the moment I wouldn’t trade it.

So congratulations to my friends that are taking (and have taken) the next step in theirs lives. I hope that will be me someday, but for now I’m happy being who I am, being where I am and doing what I’m doing.

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