A warm glow filled the towering ceilings, their windows revealing the night sky. It was just two days before Christmas, and Gaylord Opryland Resort hotel in Nashville bustled with people drawn to more than 3 million lights.

Lights wrapped around a number of trees big and small throughout the hotel, hung from the ceilings and seemed to cover everything else. As a native Middle Tennessean, they weren’t new to me, but there’s just something about Christmas time that always tugs on my heart strings.

It was past dinner time, and I was worn out from an evening party with family and sharing a room with my two-year-old niece for the past few days. No matter, my boyfriend, Taylor, and I found time to see the lights.

With my eyelids growing heavier, my stomach growling as if content to soon eat itself, Taylor persisted we venture to one of the hotel’s upper balconies. From there, we had a perfect view of the hotel’s most special tree, a 48-foot tree consistently designated the perfect backdrop for family photos.

Though I don’t remember everything Taylor said as we reached the balcony and stopped to admire the tree, I do remember him bending down on one knee to ask me to be his wife.

As expected, I burst into tears of joy. There were so many tears he had to ask me twice, because he couldn’t understand me the first time I said yes.

This was last Christmas during my junior year. I never expected to get married in college, but after dating Taylor for four years, it was hard to wait any longer.

Now just a month out from our wedding date, I find it funny how time flies.

As of 2018, the median age Americans are getting married is between 27 and 29 years old, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. As Taylor and I are 22 and 21 years old, respectively, to us, another five years of waiting doesn’t seem worth the delay.

I’ve also been told marriage isn’t easy, and people never fail to ask, “Do you really want to do that now?”

In my eyes, marriage is always challenging — getting married 15 years from now wouldn’t change that. To learn to occasionally put your spouse’s interests before your own and seek compromise when possible seems as good a way as any to avoid excessive complication.

San Francisco-based therapy group Well Clinic listed a few common arguments against marriage in a July 2019 article on its website. One of these included unrealistic expectations such as never feeling lonely again after getting married.

Obviously, marriage won’t fix your problems. You’ll feel lonely and misunderstood sometimes, and your spouse won’t always have an answer.

Though the decision to get married wasn’t a difficult one for me even when considering all potential pitfalls, the decision of when to get married was a different story.

Now in my senior year and set to be wed in the middle of the fall semester (Nov. 2, to be exact), the timing certainly wasn’t ideal. But after considering the costs, I’ve decided, as Rascal Flatts sings, “Why wait another minute?”

My own experience so far

I’ve already proposed to bridesmaids, researched venues, looked for a dress and done everything else one might expect planning a wedding entails.