Not many high school sweethearts are able to make it through young adulthood and remain a happy couple. And for the lucky few who do, marriage is usually the end goal.
So how would you feel if you spent over a decade with your boyfriend, and he kept promising to pop the question for years, but the proposal never came? Would you eventually draw the line and leave?
That’s exactly what this 26-year-old woman recently did, and to her surprise, her boyfriend showed up at her place two months later with an engagement ring. Yet, the whole thing wasn’t as romantic as it sounds.
To set the scene, she and her boyfriend, who’s 27, first started seeing each other in ninth grade back in 2012. He’d asked her to their winter formal, and they went as friends. However, it didn’t take long for them to hit it off and begin dating by the new year.
“From there, we got to a lot of milestones fast, and honestly? We both figured we’d be married by 2017 or 2018. The excuse at the time was, ‘We’re young and still in school,'” she recalled.
They proceeded to attend college, with her graduating in three years and her boyfriend earning his degree in four. Since then, they’ve also landed their dream jobs and earn a combined income of $144,000 per year.
Yes, they have some student loans, but the debts aren’t “atrocious,” according to her. And it helps that they lived in a home her boyfriend had inherited.
“That said, our life felt perfect by the time I was 22. That’s when he started randomly inquiring about my ring size, dream wedding, whether I like gold or silver jewelry more, etc.,” she detailed.
Anyone in her shoes would probably start expecting a proposal, right? Well, nothing happened when she was 22 or 23, and leading up to the day she turned 24, she thought he’d get down on one knee any day. Nonetheless, that birthday passed by, and she began to get frustrated.
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She tried asking her boyfriend what he was waiting for, and he simply stated the “right moment” hadn’t arrived. Then, once she turned 25, she realized he’d often use the promise of an engagement to his advantage whenever they got into a disagreement and she was upset about something he did.
“By 26, I told myself that he had until he turned 27 (his birthday was closer). After that, I’m walking away,” she revealed.
Spoiler alert: her boyfriend didn’t ask her to marry him, so she got her own apartment and stuck to her word. Their breakup was supposedly “peaceful,” too, and he didn’t put up much of a fight.
It wasn’t until around two months later that her then-ex showed up at her place, which he found via her shared location that she never turned off. After he arrived, they caught up on the couch for a bit before he pulled out a box holding an engagement ring.
Sadly, though, it wasn’t some romantic gesture where her ex got down on one knee and professed his love for her. Instead, she almost felt like she “forced his hand,” and he was just giving in to the pressure.
Her ex, on the other hand, believes she’s overthinking the whole situation and claims that he didn’t know just how important getting married was to her. Moreover, he admitted to not realizing what he had until he lost their relationship.
“And I kind of want to get back with him,” she vented, “But I don’t want him to resent me and, later on, say he was forced to get married or anything.”
Now, this has left her wondering whether she should give her ex a second chance or cut ties for good.
Does it sound like her boyfriend actually did know marriage was important to her and just didn’t think she’d have the courage to leave him over it? Might it be best for her to take some time for herself before jumping back into their relationship?
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By Katharina Buczek
Katharina Buczek graduated from Stony Brook University with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Digital Arts. Specializing in... More about Katharina Buczek
