I've written about this before, but I think it needs repeating. We need to stop acting like traditional marriage is THE ONLY PATH that people can take. It's not.
There isn't this either-or thing where either you get married OR you're alone forever. It also isn't true that if you are alone, you're unhappy. Plenty of people live alone in the peace of their own thoughts and find a great deal of happiness.
But if that doesn't interest you, there are other ways to create a domestic situation for yourself. I have. I've been in a platonic domestic partnership for over 20 years.
It's still important to find someone (or someones) with qualities that you want in your life. You need to find a situation where the kind of home you want to build is the kind of home others want as well. It certainly isn't always easy.
And it's important to know yourself, which admittedly no one really does when they're young. Not completely anyway. Still, you probably know that you want certain things, such as stability. Most of us want to know everyone is on board about getting the bills paid and that no one wants to live in a house where they feel unsafe.
You still have to have things to bring to the table. In my case, it was a small set of resources and the ability to make people laugh. That was enough though. This idea that you have to be sexually attractive/available if you want to have a stable, happy, shared life is just a flat-out lie. You can live a very full, partnered life without that.
Oh and another thing. A lot of the people who are single right now are in their 20s and 30s. We need to stop acting like that is the ruin of their lives. Many people don't settle down until they're older. They spend their younger years exploring things and experiencing the world and educating themselves. They shouldn't be made to feel bad that they're taking time for themselves.
Life can be very full and delightful without any romance in it at all.
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