Disengagement.

In the last two months, four of my close friends and family have got engaged. I'm not going to lie, when the first one of these four told me I was over the moon - a wedding primarily means a new dress and a chance to drink champagne in a nice venue.

However, by the fourth I felt a little different. How important is an engagement, really? It has been offered to us by many magazines that you must try to find ‘the one.’ Preferably, rich, hot, sentimental, clever and charming – probably even in that order. But paradoxically we are also told that marriage isn’t important anymore. Of course, this is all subject to opinion but as I am thrown into the world of wedding plans and dress disasters, I’m left to wonder whether ever I will prefer a wedding to living in a student flat eating cereal out of a mug because I possess no ability to wash up.

In this bubble, I wonder what changes engagement brings to a couple. For most, sex is no longer a thing to appreciate after marriage – whilst society has not yet come to terms with openly talking about sex, it is accepted by most that behind closed doors all manner of things happen. Why else would Ann Summers and FHM exist?

However, it is not just sex. I recently had a conversation with my flatmate which resulted in her asserting that she is planning two marriages; after all, the first one will probably end in divorce. Whilst this is cynical, it is most probably true which leads me to believe that nights out in the student union dressed in a  toga are most probably more fun.

I’m not denying that I will probably hit a crisis at some point due to all my friends being happily settled whilst I most definitely won’t be. But for now,  the only dress shopping I’ll be doing is for my friends twenty-first.