OK, so here is one of these mushy stories that I never like to read about but find myself in the middle of this sort of stuff all the time. I've been dating my girlfriend off and on now for about 2.5 years. I love her to death. We get along great and have a lot of fun together. She is like a girlfriend and a best friend all at the sametime. It the typical redneck and princess relationship. I live on a farm, drive a truck, play in the mud, and like Lynyrd Skynyrd cranked really loud. Her parents are loaded, she has everything she could ever want, and is a typical girl. She does work a ton, but she really doesn't need to. Her parents actually like me a lot so it works out well. Anyway, shes 18 and about ready to go to college next year. We were talking this weekend about what it's going to be like if we get seperated from eachother when she goes to college. She brought it up so that worried me to begin with. Then she drops a bomb on me and I quote her "if we are still together before I go off to college we should get engaged, not like get married right away, but just have a long term engagement and get married when we are ready." All of a sudden I just see flashes of me being 24, married, and having kids. Not a pretty picture. She really scared the crap out of me with this one. She wasn't just kidding around either, she was dead serious. The more I thought about it the less frantic I became. I keep thinking "it would just be an engagement, no really big deal, we can call it off if needed" but still something just makes me want to be very hesitant about this. I can seriously see myself spenind the rest of my life with her, but just not quite yet. Would you think a longterm (6 year) engagment would make sense? To me it basically just means that we will be there for eachother when the time comes. Kind of like a glorified promise ring. I need some good advice on this one. I don't know to run from this or be happy that she think so much of me. UHHHHHHH... girls!