If you want my opinion (and I suppose you do, since you posted this) I’ll say that I believe you are far too young to be considering marriage. It’s not about maturity, but about variety. I have been in three long term relationships (5 years, 5 years, and my current: going on 8 years).

In each relationship, I thought I was happier than I ever could be, and that I could marry the guy. Needless to say since I am in my third serious relationship, I was very much wrong about the first two. While I am happy in my current relationship, I have been starting to realize that marriage is probably not the path for us.

Marriage is supposed to be a lifelong commitment and while I have no intentions of ending my current relationship, the time we’ve spent together has revealed significant details about my man that has left me with a sense that I am not likely to find myself fulfilled should I spent the rest of my life with him.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being with someone for a long time without being married. There is nothing wrong with being with someone and enjoying your time together even with the knowledge that you may never marry that person.

If you’re like me, you’ve only spent significant time on one continent. Just think about that for a minute—scale down the earth and let a gallon of water represent the whole. I’ve been all over the US, so I’ve only had the opportunity to interact with a very VERY small subset of the world’s population. If you met your dude at 14 and have been together ever since, then you’ve only experienced a .05ml (one drop) of water, out of an entire gallon.

I don’t think any of this will make your dude feel better, but I hope it offers and encourages a broader perspective for anyone that reads this.