In middle school, I figured I would meet my soulmate right out of high school and live happily ever after. In high school, I hoped I’d meet her my junior year of college and get married when we graduated. Once I became junior in college, I realized I needed to look more if I was going to make my deadline. I went on the Real World instead.

And it seems like at every age, people get more self-centered and believe that “they aren’t ready to get married yet.” They say they want to live for themselves, and that I noticed, but they really haven’t met the right person yet. I hear thirty-year-old people saying that and I know they are lying. Their life is ticking away and they are lonely as hell.

Well I am buying a house. That’ s what grown ups do, not me. My 24th birthday is coming up. It’s the first birthday I am not excited about, or at least indifferent. 21, 22, 23, but 24 means I am not a kid anymore. I liked being ahead of my age, and now it’s hard to stay ahead of 24.

This is the real life age when people really start getting married. Some jumped the gun out of high school or in college or right after college. But I am in that singles’ scene where people are crossing their fingers, off to meet another friend of a friend.

I like the idea of marriage if it’s to the right girl. But the thought of marriage because that is what people do, that makes me mad. I would rather be homeless than be married to a quarrelsome woman. My life is too good to mess up with a misplaced ring.

Marriage isn’t a stage in life. It’s not an accomplishment or a coming of age either. Marriage is a God-given vocation. This is your purpose for living…to live for another.

Not only that, I’ve got stuff to do. I’ve become who I am partly because I’ve not wasted my time on stupid relationships. Why doubt now? I am on the home stretch.

And if I’m not, that’s fine too.