Seven Years Waiting

After my boyfriend refused to marry me for seven years straight, the ridicule finally broke me.

In a single day, I asked him more than a dozen times:

“When are you actually going to marry me?”

But he only sighed, ruffled my hair, and called me childish.

“A woman’s worth isn’t defined by marriage.”

“You should learn from your best friend. Build a successful career instead of thinking about nothing but marrying a man.”

I fell silent, but I still didn’t understand.

He was the one who’d promised to marry me as soon as I graduated.

How had wanting that wedding become my fault?