People seem to think getting engaged young is just another regret that you'll grow to have as you age.

They think getting engaged young means you're automatically just caught up in your relationship and aren't really thinking ahead, or that you just want to put on a show, you just want the attention of it. People have this incorrect yet extremely common thought that getting engaged young means you're ruining your life. But they're wrong.

My boyfriend proposed to me on the tenth of January of this year. Just a week or so ago. We're only 21, so yes, he may have popped the question at an earlier age than most but we've also been dating for almost four and a half years and we've known each other since elementary school.

Some of us just know what we want and we find it at an early age-- and that should be celebrated.

Listen, we know everything there is to know about each other inside and out, we're best friends. He proposed to me on a cruise in the Caribbean and when I said yes, I've never been so sure of anything in my life. I don't think my life ended in that moment, I don't think I made an irrational decision, he loves me. He wants to marry me. He put a ring on my finger and that's it. My life didn't come to a halt, and my priorities weren't thrown by the wayside. A new chapter of my life has just begun.

I love him, and I always knew I would marry him, and he always knew he would marry me. It's not a new thought to us. It's what our goal was from the beginning, and this is just us getting one step closer. Yes, I get it. We're 21, we're young..I've heard it all...but no one said we're getting married tomorrow. "Well why don't you wait and make sure you're ready?" "Why don't you wait until he finds a better job?" "Why don't you wait until you graduate school?" "Why don't you wait until you're set in your career?" "Don't you think maybe you jumped into things?"

My question for these people is why? Why wait?? If this is what we both want, and we want it now.. why wait? It's not about money, or a career.. I'm not forsaking my career or my future or school, to be engaged to this man? Being engaged does not mean I am unable to achieve anything else on my own in life. I'm not chained to my fiancé. I have my own separate life, and we also have our life together. I will continue to be me and he will continue to be him. And we'll continue to be the exact same people we were before he put this beautiful ring on my finger... only, we'll be happier because of it. Since when does being engage mean the end of a life? We are not making a mistake, we are not ruining our lives, we're not too young, and we're not ending our lives. Don't worry, our lives will continue. I'll get my degree, I'll become a teacher. Ill continue to do my own thing while simultaneously making strides to grow as a couple and an individual. I'll be happy, as I am now. As will he.

We're happy. What else is there? And we will continue to happy as two separate people, only together. And with a ring on my finger.