March 21, 2010
Engaged at 18?
A girl engaged at 18 years old? Her fiancé is still a student? They are planning to get married when they got graduated from university? It looks like a fairy tale that cannot exist in real world. Yet this couple engaged on Valentine’s Day and their parents held a big engagement ceremony to inform relatives and friends.
Anna Husband, the 18-year-old fiancée, is studying graphic design in Edinburgh as a university fresher and her boyfriend is in Newcastle. It seems that she is just beginning her new life in an unfamiliar city so that she may not know what kind of career she will undertake and that what kind of challenge she is going to meet in the future. However, she decided to get to engaged with a boy who grows up with her together and is planning to bond her future with the boy. It is her decision. Though Anna’s parents were surprised about the news, his boyfriend’s family were quite happy about it as their family tradition is to get married in a young age and have many babies. Both of their friends celebrated their engagement when they came back to university.
Though it is the family’s tradition to get married, it is quite unusual in Scotland for people under 20 to get married. From Scottish Government Statistics, there are only 85 persons under 19 getting married in 2007. And also from 1990’s last century to 2007, the number of young people getting married is decreasing from 1071 to 85 rapidly. In addition this special group constitutes a tiny part in married people.
“I didn’t make the decision impulsively when he proposed.” Anna says happily, “He is my Mr. Right! I know him from childhood and he is a good guy and we will have a happy life. This is enough.” However, her fiancé proposed in a romantic way that he put the engagement ring in a Valentine cake, made by him, and when Anna found the ring, the boy kissed her and ask her to marry him. “I was crying at that moment. I will remember forever.” Actually, Anna and her fiancé have a careful plan for their future including their study, career and even their babies. After graduation, Anna will come back to Newcastle and hold a big wedding in their hometown. And then the couple prefers to live in Edinburgh for 3 years to find a job matching their major and enjoy Scottish culture. After then, if they have babies, Anna decides to go back to England and open a studio to receive some cases and her boyfriend will help manage it as he is studying business management, but if not, they will go to Africa to do volunteer job in order to help others.
She seems not like her peers, who enjoy temporary happiness and care not about long-terms plans. Anna really understands what she needs and what she is pursuing.
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