My friend is getting married here in Kalispell this weekend. It will be the second time I’ve ever attended a friend’s wedding and the first for a buddy with whom I still have regular contact. Meanwhile, fellow reporter Dan Testa has been invited to 13 weddings in the past year, most of them either for his friends or his girlfriend’s acquaintances. This is a statement on our age gap. A lot happens in the years between 24 and 29 – like marriage, apparently. As happy as I am for my soon-to-be-wed friend, if this is a sign of what’s to come in the next five years, I’m not sure I’m ready.
Let me say this: I’m excited for this weekend’s wedding. My friend is ready. I have no doubt about that in my mind. But my other friends? Me? That’s a negative on both counts. So the question remains, if considering the odds – determined by societal trends – that a handful if not majority of my friends will be getting married in the next five to eight years, will they actually be ready at that time or will it just seem like they’re supposed to be ready?
I can’t help but think such questions. I’m apparently standing at the precipice of youth’s marriage stretch run. They’re about to start dropping like flies all around me.
But since the next five years are only hypothetical right now, I’m able to fully enjoy this weekend’s wedding hoopla. It’s all new to me. For example, I discovered the wonder of gift registries. I think all holidays that require gifts should have a registry. As I’ve written in a previous blog, I struggle mightily with shopping for others. It’s impossible, for me or anybody else, to guess what I might walk out of the store with. I never know what people want. Ah, but a registry solves this. I just look at a list on my computer screen and click “purchase.” All done, all good.
Then there is the party, or reception if you will. I helped arrange the band in hopes of contributing in some way. I figured that, only a couple of years removed from college, my party knowledge is still fresh and useful. So it is toward the land of beverages and dancing that I have directed my influence. It’s a matter of knowing your strengths.
With the gift shopping and band negotiating behind me, all I have to do is kick back and enjoy the beginning of my friend’s new life. And by my side will be a half dozen other single friends, watching the wedding’s proceedings and envisioning, with some degree of fear, the next five years of their lives unfolding.