A huge chunk of your future happiness (or not) will be strongly influenced by the person you choose to partner with.
+1,000
Don't get married until you know yourself quite well -- strengths, weaknesses, areas where you tend to bullshit yourself, daily habits & rhythms, value system. The marry someone with similar -- though not identical --- qualities.
I got dumped by a host of girls/women when I was in college. I stayed on good terms with all but one, it's just that we weren't the right match for one another. But the experience was good for me (though not always appreciated at the time) because I got a pretty good idea of what I truly wanted in a life partner.
Then I had the one truly brilliant idea I've ever had.
Instead of focusing on what kind of woman I wanted to spend my life with, I flipped it around. Why would a woman like that want to stay with me?
I didn't like the answer because, frankly, she wouldn't.
I realized that what I needed to do was to decide what kind of person did I want to be that would also be attractive to that kind of woman. I had to want to be that kind of person or I would end up miserable. I just needed to grow into the person that I wanted to be.
I'm pleased to say that was a plan that worked very, very well. :)
Incidentally, the four long term desireability traits in a partner are:
1) Competence at drama-free daily living,
2) Reasonableness/Fairness,
3) Adult, not an Over-aged Child,
4) Loving and sweet nature.
It doesn't matter how hot they are, if they lack those essential traits you will grow to hate living with them.