I am eighteen years old and engaged. Yes, you heard me right. I am an eighteen-year-old woman and I have a fiancé. Was I forced into it? No. I did it out of my own freewill. Am I pregnant? Nope. Did I manipulate him into proposing? Not at all, I wasn’t really thinking about the possibility of us getting married yet before he proposed. I knew in the back of my mind I wanted to marry him, but not until much further down the line. I would have never guessed he would propose before we both finished school and had jobs and were a bit settled down first, but he did. Are we crazy? Absolutely, but that’s perfectly fine. We’re also very happy, and not hurting any of the people around us.

It wasn’t the most romantic proposal on earth, but it was special to me.  We were laying in bed together, in his bedroom. I had my head on his chest and we were just snuggling and talking a little.

He started off saying, “You know, a while from now, it could be a year, it could be a few years down the road, I’ll get down on one knee and pull out a little black box and ask ‘Jena will you marry me?’”

I smiled. “You know exactly what I’m going to say.”

“Well if you know I’m going to ask and I know you’re going to say yes, then why not do it now?” So he pulled me up out of bed, and got down on his striped pajama pant clad knee. He mimed taking a ring out of his “pocket” and held the imaginary box in the air in front of me. “Jena, I love you. Will you marry me?” I held my hands over my face, feeling very emotional, and nodded happily. He got up and pulled me into a bone crushing hug. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so happy before.

“I just want to tell the world.” I sighed into his white cotton t-shirt.

“Me too, sweetheart. Me too.” He paused. “But we haven’t even been dating a month yet and people aren’t going to approve.” We laid back into bed, me half on top of him. We laid in bliss, barely talking other than to say, yet again “We’re engaged!”

“Ben, I have to tell someone.” I mumbled.

“Fine, you tell Elia, and I’ll tell Amol.” I phoned my roommate in Ben’s bedroom while he went to the hall to call his roommate from the previous year. I could feel myself glowing and I was absolutely beaming as I told her the good news. She probably thought I was kidding at first, but very quickly realized I wasn’t and became very happy for me. Ben and I both finished our phone calls, and he told me that Amol was coming over. The visit was short and awkward, and he kept mispronouncing my name, but after he left, we laid together for the rest of the night in absolute bliss.

It’s now about a month and a half later. Ben bought a ring, and he’s just waiting for it to be resized. We are still waiting to tell our families and friends, we know most of them probably won’t approve, but we are happy. So yes, I am eighteen years old ad engaged, and I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.