.the letter "M"

symbol of love.

Over the past few months or so, I've encountered a bunch of relationship status change among my friends on Facebook.

Not one, not two, not three, not four, not five...okay, I've lost count... But LOADS OF PEOPLE on my list seem to have gotten a common bug - a bug that makes people don the engagement ring or get Married.. There, I've just said the "M" word.

Why??? I don't mean it in a bad way of course...

Is it -
A. My friends and I are at the engagement/marriage age,
B. My friends are engaged or marrying way too early,
C. I should be worried that I have not scored an engagement ring (well I am kinda, but not to the extend of stressing out..yet), or
D. Because I'm still in school, unlike most of my friends, who have been in the work industry for a while.

My personal answer is ...... B.

Seriously, some of them are mommies and daddies by now - and they are no more than 3 years older than me.. heck, some of them are actually younger than me.

What has this world come to??? Seriously, I think the perfect age to get married is 27. Okay, so those who ARE ACTUALLY 3 years older than me are doing the "M" thing at the right age.

I've got friends who actually talked about getting married by 18, and having kids by 20 when we were 14 years old... I was probably the only one among them who'd imagined myself to entering university at 18, which happened, and getting my Master's degree at 24 or 25,which is also happening. Heck, who knows, I might decide to go onto PhD at some point of my life.

--

..Sigh..

I still feel a tinge of jealousy whenever I see the engagement/married status in the newsfeed, although my current priorities are school- and career-related. I just can't help feeling a little upset I guess, even though I'm supposed to be happy for these people who are moving on to a new chapter of life. What's wrong with me? I know that We are not ready to go for the "M" chapter but I still feel like I want to be a part of the "M" thing..

Maybe it's normal to feel this way... But still, can someone give me a valid reason or two as to why I'm feeling like that?

--

Despite getting green-eyed about this issue, I still do get offended when people say stuff like "Why aren't you married yet?". I was catching up with a friend recently when he asked if I was having a baby. Here's how the conservation sort of went:

Friend: So when you having babies?
Me: Err, not anytime soon - considering the fact that I'm still in school and not even engaged?? I want to have a stable career first before getting mini-me's.
Friend: !! But but but.. You will want more even if you get to the stage of having stable career.
Me: Yeah true, but isn't it better to be financially-stable to support a family?

And somehow it lead to something about me not wanting to stay home.

Friend: But why!!? You should stay home and look after the kids!
- I got a little annoyed at this stage.
Me: But why? I'm doing postgrads, it would be a waste if I just decide to be a stay home mom, no?
Friend: (sort of ignoring my reasons) but it doesn't matter - you should stay home and look after the kids.
Me: (starting to get more annoyed, but controlled myself) Look, I wouldn't even plan on doing Master's degree if I wanted to be a stay home mom. If I do that in future, it would be like, tens of thousands of tuition fees down the drain.
Friend: It doesn't matter... I would want to stay home though!
Me: (tempted to say, "Then stay home, no one's stopping you." but managed to keep it to myself) There is no way I'm staying home for the kids. I've already come this far and I have lots of ambitions for the future.. There is no way I'm giving up.
Friend: (I could tell that he still wasn't convinced, but decided to stop it here), but.. well.. at least you know what you want.


Like, seriously, DO NOT SAY such stuff to postgrad chicks - chances are, we'll be really, really offended. I hate how there are still males who don't think of females as equal in the work society.

And I still think of the friend as a good mate.. We all don't have to agree with each other 100% of the time to get along! :)

Okay, I diverged. But I think what I've said sort of relates to the letter "M"...... I think.

-end.