When my parents were my age, they were already married and about to have their first kid.
After finishing college, they started the family that they say is one of the things that have given their lives the most meaning and value.
In my dad's words, when he was done with college, he just knew it was time.
That choice isn't so obvious for today's generation. There are still things to do. Opportunities and potential are still there to be explored and reached. There is more to discover, and money to be made.
Backed by society's encouragement, graduates move on to find bigger and better things, often at the expense of their desire for relationships and family.
With the high number of people going to college, graduate school now sits as the first option for those wanting to separate themselves from the crowd as qualified, valuable professionals.
Others, ready to be done with education, take their first steps toward lifelong careers and new directions.
Either way, most people have relocation and drastic personal change in front of them.
The best choice seems then to be to wait to develop long-term relationships. And people are waiting. A recent study by the U.S. Census Bureau called the American Community Survey, showed that for the first time, households of married couples have become the minority living situation, dropping almost 18 percent since 1990.
Devoted, long-term relationships, whether with friends or family, is problematic.
Every college student knows the hard changes that go along with starting undergraduate school, and we all know the stories of people who struggle to maintain past relationships. With the tension of distance and the complications of new growth, past friends and loves separate and move on.
The process is sort of a rite of passage into adulthood. But now that rite of passage is being repeated when undergraduate school is over.
No longer a time to settle, graduation shines as a time to move on to greater things.
Putting off long-term relationships then makes practical sense. It also seems a better choice for solid relationships.
I respect people driven to establish a career and do what has to be done to make that happen. The lessons they learn and the virtues they display are admirable. It takes responsibility, dedication, intelligence and skill to take advantage of opportunity.
But the focus on these rewards and virtues has gone too far and has set people against those of deep relationships.
We've lost sight of the undeniable rewards of friends and family. In the zeal of ambition and a skewed idea of the fruition of the self, our society is losing sight of the value of giving yourself to others in fully compassionate relationships.
Everyone has heard the idea that when you see your firstborn baby, your life is irreversibly changed.
You are confronted for the first time with someone totally dependent on you, and the instinctual love of being a mother or father kicks in and you desire to give everything for your child.
Such a lesson in sacrificial and consuming devotion is as important as any professional or academic reward. And with the uncertain reality of tomorrow, I will take the first before the latter.
The world is wide open to graduating students. Their lives offer new potential for exploring their talents and ambitions and building a happy, comfortable life.
But no one should get so caught up in the glimmer of opportunity that they turn away from the relationship that they have or could find, which makes life worthwhile.
Matthew Bowman is an English literature senior. You can reach him at Matthew.Bowman@asu.edu.
