[WVU alpha phi]

I was actually discussing this with my boyfriend and friend from HS the other day. I'm from Maryland, and my HS graduating class (2003) had 650 kids. I'd say probably 100 of them (that I'm aware of) are now either married, engaged, married with kids, or single with kids. I feel like every time I get on facebook someone new is engaged.

I think it comes from maybe only half of that graduating class going to a 4 year college. And a LARGE majority that go to 4 year colleges attend ones in state within 30 minutes of our hometown. So they don't seem to branch out, make new friends, etc. I've looked through pictures and asked why they're all still hanging out together 5 years later, no new friends in sight. Also, when they graduate from college, they move back home. So any friends they may have made in college are no longer around.

As far as my college friends go, only one of my close friends is married. She and her husband met in the fall of our freshman year and got engaged summer before senior year. She'll be 23 this spring and he just turned 28. I've had several sorority sisters get married or become engaged recently, most are 24-26. They all live in the mid-Atlantic or NY.

Now that I'm in the south, I see people definitely get married younger. My boyfriend is 23 and he grew up here and has several friends who are already married or engaged. One is already separated, they were married less than a year. I don't feel any pressure to get married at this age (I JUST turned 23), but I do know that I'd like to be married within the next few years, hopefully around 25 or 26.