Lately, I have been reflecting on my life and all the what-if’s. There are so many different routes that I could have taken in life, but I have to say the route I am on right now is the best choice.

When I was 18 years old, I met a guy six years older than me. Here I was, this young, naive and immature adult who thought he had everything figured  out.

We literally started dating within 24 hours after we met—I know, quite the rush. Within three weeks of dating, we started talking about marriage. Why I was so obsessed with the idea of getting married, I cannot figure it out to this day.

You see, I am a hopeless romantic, and I am in love with the idea of being in love. I really thought I loved this guy, but truth be told I had no idea what love truly was.

He ended up buying an engagement ring and proposed to me after three weeks. I will never forget walking into my house with him to tell my parents the news. They were not happy.

Fast forward to a few hours later. Even though I wanted to be engaged, married and happy, part of me kept telling myself that this was not right.

I decided to give him the ring back. I told him we could continue our relationship, but wait on the engagement thing until we had dated much longer.

Needless to say, the relationship ended in a matter of days. I look back now and thank God that I made the right move.

You see, this guy had a drug problem and was also very controlling of me. I had to text him all throughout the day or I would get scolded. The whole situation was truly messed up.

I think about that relationship and think about what would have happened if we had gone through with the engagement and gotten married.

I can tell you right now that life would not be good. We would be living in his parents’ home with no money, and I probably would have dropped out of community college and not have gone to Eastern.

I want to encourage everyone to not rush their life away. There is plenty of time for marriage and starting a family. Spend the short amount of time that you have getting your education and having fun.

Andrew Paisley is a junior journalism major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or at abpaisley@eiu.edu.