Yeah, that would be a bit of a relief, no doubt.

Haha, good! I am glad to know it wasn't possible. I was young. I just tried to get out of it by pretending it didn't happen.

There is such a thing as dating long distance.

Maybe just kiss her first and see how THAT goes before moving on to proposals?

if she won't be your girlfriend why would she be your wife?

I fucking hate broccoli, which makes the story even better.

I was a sophomore in high school. I said no. He threatened to kill himself. I laughed in his face.

Just completely unsolicited advice from an internet stranger, it's probably a really bad idea to propose to someone you're not even dating. Why not just ask her to be in a relationship instead? Personally, I would be kinda weirded out if a close friend asked me to marry him if we weren't actually together. But I…

This sounds like an absolutely terrible idea. Do tell.

We had been on a date and a half (the half date was he had asked for a ride home from something else, and then asked if we could just go to my place to watch a movie. I was too spineless to say no). He left shortly after to go to school out of state, and called me to tell me he had "received revelation" that we were…

Broccoli is delicious. Congratulations!

Oh yeah. My husband is pretty much the greatest guy in the whole world and I am a very lucky lady, but I had a day of pure, white hot terror after we got engaged. It was actually one of the weirdest emotions I've ever had. Never experienced anything like it before or since.

I came back from the doctor and said I probably couldn't get pregnant without a lot of help - help I've decided I didn't want. He hugged me, said it was OK, and asked me to marry him. Right there, in the hallway, with a litter box not 2 feet away. I said no.

I was the one that proposed, and I felt great about it...until the day of. Standing in front of the judge with my fiance and his family, all I could think was, "holy fuck, this is a mistake". Thankfully, a rational little voice said, "shut up, that's just Cold Feet talking; don't listen. you were sure of this for…

This is not—and was never—good parenting.

Normal does not mean healthy or sane. It means that it happens fairly regularly in people who might wish otherwise. And who may have to struggle against the signals their body is sending.

Please don't tell her how to feel about her own experience. It is not your place to instruct her on what her emotions should be about something that happened to her.

Thank you so much for sharing, this must have been difficult to talk about.

i hesitate to like...commend this piece or call it interesting because i don't want anything to be misconstrued. i think alconleigh nailed it. this was incredibly brave and showed a lot of humility, intelligence, and just humanity. thank you for sharing.