Students balance marriage and school

Despite challenges, stress of college life, more students are saying ‘I do’

By Christina Magnussen

When it comes to thoughts of love and relationships, some Flagler College students are left questioning whether or not all the daily stresses of college life can sustain a marriage at this stage in their lives.

“The challenge of an everyday college student is hard enough. Now take that role and multiply it by two, plus add other bills that come when you are married,” senior Michael St. Germain said.

St. Germain, a communication major, married fellow Flagler College student Sarah in August. They met freshman year in high school and have been dating for four and a half years.

“I got married because we were in love, and in today’s age, growing up in the ’90s, you never really saw true love, unless it came from older people like your grandparents,” Germain said.

He said it is sometimes difficult to see others living their lives so “frivolously,” but “we were meant for each other and that’s why we got married.”

Anna Hasle, a senior graphic design major, is currently engaged and will be getting married in June, just two months after she graduates.

“People are like, ‘You’re only 21.’ I really don’t care what everyone else thinks.” Hasle said.

Hasle meet her fiancé, David Hirsch, at Flagler three years ago. He has since graduated and so far things are good.

“It’s not as bad as people make it out to be,” she said.

But Hasle said although her friends are happy for her, they say they are not ready to be married and they are shaken up a bit.

This topic has increasingly become so intriguing that MTV has developed a show called “Engaged and Underage,” a new weekly series that follows young couples between the ages of 18 and 22 during the last weeks of their engagement.

Flagler students such as Brianna Daly, a senior psychology major and Kellye Wantz, a junior communication major, cite the MTV show as an example of why marriage should be put off until a later time.

“That show just makes me not want to get married for a while. I think that a good age to get married would be over 25,” Daly said.

Wantz said that she has plenty of time to figure the whole marriage issue out. Daly and Wantz, who both said they do not oppose young marriages, are happy for those of their friends who are married.

“But I don’t understand what the rush is,” Wantz said. “How can we really know what love is already?”
She said people change so much from the time they begin college until the time that the graduate.

“I have an idea in my head of what a wife should be and I don’t believe that I’m ready for that right now,” Daly said.