Met DH at 21 (he’s a year older), got engaged a month later, and married a year later at 22. Now happily married for 19 years and have three kids. We wanted kids right away, but knew we were too young, so we waited 7 years before we had our first. Like others have said, putting off having kids so that we could grow as a couple and experience adult life was the key to a successful marriage for us. We felt that we were right for each other from the first night we met and we had a shared vision of what we wanted our future, “adult”, life to be like. The early years, when all of our friends were still single, were sometimes tough, but we stuck with it and worked toward that shared vision of the future. Now that we are living that vision, life is wonderful! Marrying young allowed us to grow and make memories together, as well as build financial security (like a previous poster, we started out eating on a cardboard box in a crappy apartment) that we would not have had otherwise. At this point, we are both very grateful for each other and for the way things turned-out FWIW, we are also non-religious and from non-religious families who strongly discouraged us from getting married so young. We’re so glad we didn’t listen!