God, it's hard to get used to saying this. I'm engaged. I've potentially promised the rest of my life to one person. Crazy, isn't it? I bet most of you are like, “WTF? I didn't even know Tarheel was dating anyone?” Let me explain.

One thing you guys might've noticed is that I don't mention a lot about my personal life. As mentioned in a previous blog, I have trust issues, and I don't like the idea of telling people in general my life. So, aside from Bryan (Vusys) and a guy from Maple Story I've been friend with for four years now, I don't know of anyone online who even knows about this girl. However, it's official now, so I feel like I've gotta give y'all a heads up.

To start, her name's Elizabeth. She was a tour guide when I visited NC State last spring to see what the campus was like. We hit it off pretty well during the tour (it was pretty informal; there were no parents, and only about 10 kids in total), but when it ended, that was that, and I didn't think much of it. However, I ran into her again that night when I went out to eat with some friends from my high school (my old high school is no more than five minutes from NCSU) on NC State campus. It was a Mexican restaurant called La Fiesta, and it was delcious. Anyways, tangent aside, I eventually switched tables, and sat with Elizabeth and her friend (who I now know is named Jane). When we finished eating, I bid farewell to my friends and went with Elizabeth and Jane back to their dorm. I felt bad about leaving my friends, but they later told me they were pretty excited. It was about three months after my previous girlfriend had broken up with me, and I was slow to get over the old relationship. Thus, my friends were pretty happy about me potentially moving on and perking up.

Continuing the story, Elizabeth and I hung out till three in the morning (Jane falling asleep around one), talking, joking around, showing each other videos (she's a decent nerd, although she doesn't approach our levels of nerdom), everything. It only took a week before I formally asked her out on a date. Things have gone as well as they could have gone since then. There's been a few bumps, but there always are.

However, that doesn't explain being engaged at age 19 and potentially being married at age 20, does it? It's kind of complicated, and I don't feel comfortable going into all the details, but I'll try to give y'all a basic idea of what's going on. Basically, her grandpa has a terminal illness. The whole family's pretty upset, but there's something that complicates things: he's loaded. He played the stock market well, and he's one of those frugal old people (just like my grandma, but on a much larger scale) who don't do anything with their money. His family is going to inherit all of his money. What requires our engagement, though, is that he's said he's going to give each family an equal share. Both of Elizabeth's siblings are older and married, and her only uncle and aunt have no children. Before we became engaged, it'd basically work out that her parents, both of her siblings (one sister and one brother), and her uncle will get an equal share. She would get none because she's under her parents. The problem is that her parents are pretty much jackasses (I'm using this term with her permission, haha) who are going to use that money to pay off their massive (gambling) debts and then retire early and blow the rest on gambling and alcohol.

Also, this isn't a small amount of money. She could potentially live for the rest of her life by drawing interest on the inheritance she'd receive. By being engaged, we're now a separate couple, a different family legally according to the lawyers we've spoken with. Marriage isn't a requirement. Thus, we've got over a year to make sure we're getting this right (the marriage is going to be sometime next May). It's very unlikely that the grandpa will live another 6 months. Thus, if we realize we're not going to work, we can separate before we make a big mistake. However, if he lives past the marriage date, we'd feel comfortable making that commitment after having been together for over two years. I know all of this is probably somewhat taboo, and to a few of you think we're making a mockery of marriage. But you know what? Fuck it. I love this girl and I don't want her to miss out on an opportunity to live her life the way she wants, pursuing her dreams instead of being tied down to some standard 9-5 job. For that goal, I'm willing to disrespect whatever custom I have to.

!!!!I'm engaged!!!!