The end of a busy semester and busier week of finals was plenty reason for a date night.
So Evan Bohnet and Katie Balerud celebrated.
They drove to Omaha, where Bohnet, a sophomore secondary math education major at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Balerud, a freshman Child, Youth & Family Studies major at UNL, walked through the Old Market, had some ice cream in the below-freezing weather and took a horse-and-carriage ride. On the drive back to Lincoln, Bohnet was fixed on finding a secluded spot in the countryside off the road, like the ones they frequented in their hometown of Columbus.
"When we first started dating, that's what we would do," Balerud said. "We would take his pickup out to the country near a corn field… and sit and talk for hours."
Bohnet strayed from the highway and found a park. The two took a walk and stopped in a wooded area, where Bohnet, a high school wrestler and football player, wrapped his arms around petite Balerud. While he hugged her, Balerud heard paper crinkling behind her back.
Bohnet had brought a ring and a cheat sheet.
"He got down on one knee in the snow, in this wooded area in suburban Omaha," Balerud said. "I was so overwhelmed I don't even remember the first half of what he said."
A few weeks short of their three-year anniversary, the high school sweethearts were engaged.
The story is practically scripted: A cheerleader and athlete from Smalltown, Neb., begin dating in high school, come to the big spirited state school and marry. It fits a fairytale as well as a Midwest stereotype.
Many Americans living on the coasts have a conception of the Midwest that often includes John Deere, religious family values and young newlyweds. But the reality does not always match up.
The nation's median age of marriage is 26 for women and 28 for men, according to the United States Census Bureau's 2008 American Community Survey. Those ages in Nebraska are 25 and 27, respectively – only one year younger than the national average – based on the same survey.
"People are usually influenced by what's around them, so I think that's where the general stereotype comes from for the Midwest, maybe some people getting married younger, or maybe our parents married younger," said Amy Chatelayn, a psychology intern with UNL's Counseling and Psychological Services. "I would say it's actually going the other way, and people are actually getting married later."
In fact, the Census Bureau shows that the average age of marriage has steadily gone up, from early 20s in the 1960s to mid- to late-20s in recent years.
Even Balerud, who will be 19 when she gets married this summer, could only think of one other couple she knew who had gotten married in their teens.
"Mostly, what I see is people pushing marriage back," Balerud said.
Chatelayn suggested the delay could be partly attributed to wider acceptance of things that may have previously pushed people into marriage sooner. One of those things is cohabitation: Chatelayn said couples no longer feel that they need to be married before they can live together.
Another of those things is having children out of marriage.
Balerud was a sophomore and Bohnet a junior in high school when they met. He asked her out the day before New Year's Eve, and the following September Balerud found out she was four months' pregnant.
When she went to the school counselor with the news, Balerud was told that, statistically, she and Bohnet had less than a 3 percent chance of staying together. Hearing such slim odds from a professional were scary, but, Balerud said, "I was never really afraid that Evan was going to leave me."
Still, the couple decided not to get married right away.
"We didn't want to get married just because of (our daughter)," Bohnet said. "It may look good on the outside, but on the inside, that's just going to cause more problems, of course."
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