When do I "I do?"

I'll be the first to admit that I don't know what I want in life when it comes to a career. I'm so scattered and easily bored that I flit from career idea to career idea like a manic job-hunting hummingbird (Yes, I realize this is a bad analogy because hummingbirds don't job hunt). The only thing I have ever felt with any certainty about over the past five years with regards to my future is that I want to marry my boyfriend one day.

But when should that day be?

I found this article in USA Today rather interesting. It talks to different researchers, sociologists, and family health experts about what the best age to marry is if indeed there is one.

Here are some quotes:

In a 1946 Gallup Poll, most found the ideal age to be 25 for men and 21 for women. Sixty years later, in a Gallup telephone poll of about 500 adults, the ideal age had increased to 25 for women and 27 for men.


A study being drafted by sociologist Norval Glenn of the University of Texas-Austin finds that those who marry in the early to mid-20s are slightly happier and less likely to break up than those who marry in the later 20s, but are significantly more satisfied with their relationships than those who marry at 30 or older.


"Older marriages (30s vs. 20s) were more cohesive in the sense they did things more often together as a couple. And couples who married at older ages were less likely to report thinking about divorce or that their marriage was in trouble."

Van Epp presented a program this summer about the repercussions of marrying in the late 20s and early 30s. Singer's blog urges parents to change the wait-to-marry message. He's particularly worried that medical advances in treating infertility are giving couples the wrong idea.

"It gives people confidence — almost invincibility — that we can delay these things and science will rescue us," he says.

Fertility researcher Richard Paulson of the University of Southern California says that, as a general rule, women should start having children no later than age 30 and be done by 35, when statistics show fertility declines.

Researchers say divorce rates are down for the better-educated. Those with college degrees marry later, have better jobs and more income. But an analysis of 2006 Census data by the American Council on Education finds that only 35% of those 25-29 have an associate's degree or higher.

Moral of the story: who knows? I guess like anything else, when it's time, it's time.

But, boy oh boy, what I wouldn't do to have the same clear vision for my career that I have for my love life!