Interview with Shari: A Real Runaway Bride

When I was 21, I was attending Michigan State, with History/ Political Science as a double major. It was there that I met my boyfriend. We were a typical love-struck couple back then, which meant things got serious quickly. I wanted to live together, because I wasn't ready for marriage, somehow, I just knew. He, on the other hand, figured that marriage was going to be the only way to keep me, because he knew that I really respected the sanctity of marriage, and if I actually did go through with it, I would stick to my vows. So he proposed. On my birthday.

We were engaged in May, and our wedding date was set for December of that year. All was going quite well, until he caught me in bed with another man. I simply looked up and said to him "You really should have called."

Flash forward, I'm 26. I had been dating a doctor, but things got to be too much when I'd realized that I couldn't handle his controlling nature, so we were done. I must have been suffering from the effects of the rebound theory, because I started dating a friend of my brother. And so, we eventually got engaged. I guess there was so much pressure to do so, as everyone of my friends were getting married at the time. You know how that goes. I guess I was guilty of putting pressure on myself. Anyway, our wedding date was five weeks away, and I remember my Mother calling me to check some details about the invitations, which had just gone out, when I started to feel a choking sensation. I called my fiancé, and called off the wedding.

When I was 27, I got fixed up with a doctor (yes, another one) and we started dating. He was nuts about me, he wanted to settle down, get married, the whole bit. I knew he was going to propose any time now. I got really scared about commitment and getting married,and so I went out with his best friend. Needless to say, that was the end of that.

Now I was 32, and still single, and one of my friends mentioned something that intrigued me, which happened to be: "Have I got a guy for you! I think he's going to be your husband." Hmm. So we met. We hit it off. We started dating. And the funny thing was, I finally felt safe. I knew in two weeks that he was 'the one.' I did have some jitters, but not enough to do anything to ruin it. We moved in at two months after a whirlwind courtship, and were married nine months after we met. It just felt right.

- as told to Brenda Ross

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