MPCA and marriage

Two huge things happened this week.

For starters (as a lot of you know), I began my first "real world job". Actually I think I may be the first one of us all to actually have a real office, cubicle, work environment, etc. job except for maybe Wendy.

And that brings me to number two:

Wendy's getting married... this August.

My Wendy! MARRIED! I wondered when this would happen (and I rightly guessed when we told me she had exciting news for me) but I didn't think I'd be in such shock. Happy shock, mind you. Wendy is wonderful and BYU boys are all nice, responsible, caring and older, thus they are at the point in life during which one intends to marry. I mean, he's 24 -- because good Mormon boys go on missions for 0.5-2 years -- and having just graduated will be going to med school. And Wendy is giving up the single life of living with "the girls" in her moral, bachelorette pad to marry him, to change her name, leave her apt., friends and possibly even BYU to follow him. Is this "bacheloretter" than waiting a year?

BYU operates, from all that I understand of this mysterious place, on a different time scale than the rest of the U.S. People get married to other members of the church in college and this is perfectly normal. I can't help but compare this to St. Olaf, where it's kosher to wait at least until the day after graduation to tie the knot. But, are these two religious schools that different? Here Wendy is, 20 years old, about to marry a fiance she's been dating for not even six months. And then there's me planning to marry the guy I've been dating for 9 months. I guess it's a fair point that Jimmy and I will NOT be doing any marrying in the next two years, thus extending the courtship period into the "acceptable" length of time that one tests the waters. I have to wonder, what would it be like if we all were getting married right now? It seems like there's so much to do and to learn and many mistakes to make before you "settle down." But people didn't always believe this needed to happen while single. In fact, to many it's perfectly acceptable to go through these life experiences with someone else at your side. It's like a safety net.

This whole marriage thing is Scary with a capital S. I hope Wendy feels she's making the right decision (which I know she does), that everything goes off without a hitch, and that my time won't come for a blissfully long while.