The first guy in the OP sounds like a good buddy of mine. He was desperate not to "die alone" or whatever so he got engaged to the first girl that he dated seriously. The relationship didn't make it to the wedding and he ended up marrying the next girl he dated after a year of dating. They divorced after about 15 months. Our whole circle of friends saw it coming and tried to talk to him about it but he couldn't be swayed in his decisions. At the time he actually got mad at us, but once everything was settled and he looked back on the situation, he wished that he had taken our advice about not settling too early.
I've found that many of the couples nowadays that don't work seem to get married young, like high school or early 20's before they've had a chance to really find themselves and figure out what they want to do with their lives. Or they got married early and didn't get to party or travel or whatever else everybody was doing instead so they feel that they missed out. Most people I know who have gotten married later in life (late 20's-early 30's) seem to have much more happier marriages. They seem more on track with each other's goals and have realistic expectations of what life will be like with their partners.
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