Gorton: Being married in college is a blast

It's safe to say that getting through college isn't always easy.

For some it ends before graduation but several of us will walk away with a degree and possibly a life-long relationship.

For me, that life-long relationship of marriage started after my freshman year. I got married when I was 19.

Generally people respond similarly when they hear I have a husband. I'm usually bombarded with questions about why, what it's like to be married, did I miss out, how'd my husband and I meet and so on.

From being questioned I'm usually lectured about my age, meeting other guys and my social life. The girls at work like to tease me as they get excited about going out, and I get excited about a new appliance.

But I'm here to set the record straight about being married in college: it's amazing.

I'm not going to write this to pretend marriage is easy - it's not.

There are days I get home from school and work so tired that even the sound of Sam's chewing risks pushing me over the edge of normalcy and into the depths of insanity.

I'll go on to admit that since marriage my drive to finish my education at the top has more than waivered. It's hard to study animal behaviors or drag myself to another group meeting when my husband is at home.

And even when I do make an effort to do homework while he's home, if either of us isn't happy from something that happened that day, the homework is going to be pushed aside and forgotten until we are settled.

It's true. My marriage does pretty well dominate every aspect of my life which sounds…awful. Really, it's not. Sam is my support system.

On days when I get home from school and work so tired that I can hear every movement of his food as he chews, if I do snap a little he is right there to talk to me about what's wrong.

And the misconception that because I married so young I can't go out for fun whenever I want - false. I can go out with my friends and have a good time whenever I want the only difference is that I call Sam to let him know where I am.

What keeps me from going out? I'd rather be home. What most people don't realize is that with my schedule and my husband's, we only see each other about two days a week. I will choose my husband over going out any day and it's not because I feel obligated - we have a blast together.

In the end it doesn't matter how many questions I have to answer about being married in college. It's amazing and I wouldn't have it any other way. Yes, marriage has its challenges. Not everybody should run out and have a wedding during their college days.

But for me, if I could do life all over again, I wouldn't change marrying my high school sweetheart one year into my college career.