Worth Not Waiting For

Marriage Isn't About Timetables

First came love, then came marriage, then there I was, standing in the middle of the common room, trying to explain my life choices to an academic registrar who just wasn't getting it.

"Married?" she said. "You're just a child!" She sounded genuinely horrified, as if I had admitted to willfully sabotaging the rest of my life. I wanted to say, "Twenty-one is not a child, thanks," but I refrained. Regrettably, I didn't pursue the conversation at all. Instead, I deflected her comment with an attempt at humor. "I didn't want her to get away," I said, at which the registrar sniffed and called me "charmingly...