Celebrating Independence

I just read on Facebook tonight about yet another of my undergraduate friends expecting a child (in this case it's his wife that is expecting, I'm sure the wife would like to note there's a difference in the work involved). A rather ridiculous number of my friends are now parents, married, engaged, or have been dating enough years to be at the "it's just a matter of time now" point of a relationship. I passed a Facebook milestone late last year when 51% of my friends fell into those categories. Yay for advanced search on Facebook, when an inquiring geek mind wants to know these things on a whim at 1 am.

I offered my hearty congratulations to my friend, and then wondered to myself whether this means that I am getting old. While it probably does, (my boyfriend from freshman year now has two children with his lovely wife, how is that for making me feel old when I went back to visit), I am going to blame it on the fact that I did my undergrad in the south/midwest, where getting married young is common. My parents married at 19, and my grandparents married at 18. This is why I have been fortunate enough to get to know my great-grandmother.

I have most decidedly not carried on the married-at-18 tradition, or even the married-after-college tradition.

I have to say, I would not be averse to having an "SO" as it's known here - a significant other. Actually, the joke goes that the first two questions students from World's Best School ask each other (rather than the standard "where are you from, what are your hobbies") are "where is your SO, and what is your OS?". Operating system, of course. :) It would be nice to have someone to come home to each night, a partner to support each other and share in life, someone to love.

But then I think a little harder, and I find the idea of being tied down to one person scares the spit out of me. Because look what I can do on my own! I can do little things like:

- eat whenever I want, and
- eat whatever it pleases me to cook
- sleep whenever I need to
- decorate as I wish
- make weekend plans without consulting anyone else
- change my plans with no trouble

And I can do big things like:

- decide my own career path
- decide what country I want to live in (I was offered a job in Singapore upon graduation if I want it)
- manage my own finances
- make my own friends on my own merits
- take time off to vacation, visit family and friends, go home for the holidays.

For the right person, I suppose sacrificing being able to say "I suddenly want to go watch a movie RIGHT NOW" doesn't seem like much. All of the things in that list could be worth giving up. But for now, I'm happy celebrating my independence.

And, Watchmen was awesome. I didn't even miss the previews. :)