This semester of college has been the standard: projects, exams and Sunday afternoon Netflix binges. In addition, I have the ever-pressing task of finding addresses for almost 300 wedding guests.

As I flip through countless wedding catalogues and discuss with my fiance whether to have a live band or a DJ, I can’t help but realize that I am leading a different lifestyle than many of my college friends.

I don’t spend my weekends partying or going on awkward dates with strangers who have only one motivation: to buy me that drink. Instead, I’ve spent the last two  years of college exploring Marquette, learning, eating great food, growing spiritually, emotionally and probably physically—hello, freshman 15.

College has offered me a place to find myself, my passions, the things I hate and the things at which I’m successful.

I have grown more confident in myself, which enables me to make the commitment to marriage at a younger age than most. I know I’m ready because I know who I am as a person.

I have fallen in love with the art of photography and found my voice through a journalism minor. I am expanding myself in all the ways that the world tells me I should.

But what’s different in my life is that I have a fiance walking through these changes with me.

I have someone to experience life with, to complain to about endless homework assignments and to help me fold socks every Sunday afternoon.

I’m happy experiencing college with a very good-looking partner by my side. I’m choosing the untraditional route and am perfectly content with that decision, but I’m not settling nor am I missing out.

Marriage isn’t something that takes away from my individual life but instead adds to the joy and happiness that I can experience on this Earth.

Divorce was a defining part of my childhood. I saw the damage of a broken marriage and I understand how life-altering it can be. Consequently, I’ve grown up very aware and conscious of  the relationships around me.

I’ve seen successful ones and ones that are destined for failure.

I’ve learned the components of a healthy connection, and I understand the strengths needed to push through the difficulties of financial issues, stress and growing pains.

In spite of the statistics, I am carving my own path and defining my own future.

As graduation inches closer, I’m comforted with the knowledge that I won’t be going through that transition alone.

I can find peace in my best friend while everything else in life is changing.

In this time of uncertainty and confusion, marriage offers me stability.

I have a partner to balance my strengths, encourage my passions and make me belly laugh consistently for the rest of my life.

This choice to marry is uncommon among other students my age, and that is a fact I am willing to accept.

Some people might avoid making the commitment to marriage because they want the freedom or they are not financially ready.

Or maybe they haven’t found the right person yet.

I am here to say that all of those reasons, and whatever other reason you might come up with, are perfectly acceptable reasons to wait.

But when the time is right, the person is right and none of those reasons apply, the choice to marry should not be criticized.