How young is too young?

About a year ago, there was a female in The Stan Man's life that he had grown very close to. Let's call her Tristen. The feelings were expressed on both sides; however Tristen also had strong feelings for a gentleman that she came to know on the other side of the globe. It was at this point in her young life that she had to make a decision. Now that more than 365 days have gone by (as well as some wild news), I feel it is appropriate to break down her choice.

On one hand she had The Stan Man who stands an impressive 5'11. On the other she had this other gentleman, who we will refer to as Lyle, that stands about 6'3. It should be noted here that although my Irish heritage precludes me from winning any big dick contests, it is unclear as to who was had the height advantage when it came to the underworld.

Lyle drives a white '08 Escalade (and has probably upgraded by now) and The Stan Man drives a white '02 Taurus.

Lyle had cheated on previous girlfriends, but The Stan Man hooked up with this Tristen's best friend (at Tristen's house mind you).

For Valentine's Day, Lyle took Tristen on a wine tour.....IN CALIFORNIA. This summer 10 of The Stan Man's best friends in the world went on a wine tour and he was not even invited.

On the one year anniversary of this decision, Lyle took Tristen to the Poconos for the weekend and asked for her hand in marriage by presenting a ring to her that is probably worth more than all the money The Stan Man has ever had to his name. On the one year anniversary of this decision, The Stan Man is writing this blog entry to an audience of roughly 50 (I high balled it).

First things first, I'd like to extend my congratulations to the happy couple. Surely nothing will break the bond of true love, but if you're a 22 year old girl and your boyfriend of one year proposes to you, is your first thought not "you're joking, right?"? I mean marriage is a pretty big commitment. I can't even commit to an ass wiping style (read Poop Culture before you judge me), let alone one person for the rest of my life.

In the past two weeks, I have heard of two other young couples that have recently been engaged. Both brides to be are 23 and both future bridegrooms are 24. Of course these other two couples have each been together for 3+ years and because of their tried and true histories, I wasn't the least bit surprised to hear the respective good news.

My Journalism professor taught me that if you can find three people, or in this case three couples, that all do the same thing then you have a trend. Which begs the question, how young is too young for a couple to get married? Obviously I think in order to answer the question, you must evaluate the couples individually as opposed to collectively. It is clearly up to the couple to know and decide if and when they plan to tie the knot.

Which brings us back to Lyle and Tristen. The timing of their engagement was a bit surprising because they have only been together for a year, but that is where the peculiar timing ends. Let me be the first to say that I'm sure that the timing of this engagement had nothing to do with the fact that this weekend is alumni weekend at the U. The happy couple will probably refrain from telling anyone the good news. In fact, I doubt that Tristen will even be wearing her ring.