What’s The Rush? We Dated For 10 Years Before We Got Married

What’s The Rush? We Dated As wonderful as marriage can be, the fact remains that it’s an institution loaded with pressure.

On our nine-year anniversary, Nathan and I went out to dinner at our favorite sushi restaurant. After our wine had been poured but before the appetizers arrived, he slid a card across the table. I tried to skim the inscription, but my eyes were drawn immediately to the question scrawled at the bottom of the page. As I realized what was happening, my heart started to pound and I felt my face begin to flush. “Will you marry me?” read the small, precise print. “Circle yes or no.” * Nathan and I met as undergrads at Purchase College, the art school of New York’s state university system.

He was temporarily homeless, living in a tent in the woods while waiting for a bed to open up in the dorms. I was a studying poetry and fiction, a wannabe-hippie with a wardrobe that consisted mostly of brown corduroy.

After our first conversation, Nathan proved to be smart, adventurous, and unpredictable. He was also good-looking, with blond hair, blue eyes, and forearms sculpted from weekends spent rock climbing.

On one of our first dates we went rappelling in the Natural Sciences building — an activity that was slightly dangerous and probably illegal — and as I lowered myself down the stairwell, attached to a rope, wearing a harness, and inexplicably trusting a boy a barely knew, I realized Nathan was the perfect balance to my bookish personality.

We promptly fell in love , positive we’d be together forever. There was just one problem — we were only 20 years old.

Columnist; Annick Owusu