Candy Shoppe - Emeralds

Hello fellow hot dogs!

A this very moment, I am 21 years old. And currently, I am watching "Sex and the City 2." I know, not the best movie ever, but... what can I say? I'm a sucker. And a masochist.

Anyways, one of the main focuses of this "movie" is marriage. Marriage in my opinion, as I have made it obvious to many, is a waste of time. A pointless tradition that is the ultimate standard for growing up, becoming adults, and becoming "happy". How do you know that Bobby is no longer the ultimate male hooker quarterback from Plano, TX? Easy. He got married.

I know, what a shitty conclusion.

Marriage = maturity, growing up, and all that jazz? My ass...

My conclusion, on the other hand, totally makes sense.

Marriage once used to be this thing that proved that people matured. Yes, marriage led to kids, which led to purchasing a house. And before you knew it, said children grew up, went to college, and one retired... before they kicked the bucket. All this equaled that one grew up, was able to provide, and at long last, had found happiness.

All of this, however, has changed. Now a days, its a teenage pregnancy that leads to marriage, that leads to a minimum wage job at Wal-Mart, which leads to living with one's parents, at their apartment, much longer than one anticipated. Happiness is not a part of this equation. Eventually, the suckers that decided to get married get a divorce, but not before planting the seeds that will continue this cycle.

Yes, the American dream has been changed to the new American cycle.

A long time ago, I wanted a marriage. I wanted an amazing career and an amazing husband. I wanted the house with the white picket fence and the 2.5 kids. All in this order. I believed that this is what growing up would be. I believed that if my life led this path, I would be an adult I could be proud of, and that I would, in the end, be happy. Since then, my beliefs have drastically changed.

Marriage does not equate being happy with someone; if the divorce rates show us anything. I no longer want all that. I want to travel; to see the world. I want to find the love of my life, and to lose him, because I believe this to be much more valuable than any marriage could ever be. I want happiness, without having a certificate as a way of proving to all that I have found it.

Does marriage now a days mean that one has grown up? No. It means that someone was pretending to be an adult and while pretending they got stuck with real consequences, like an unwanted pregnancy. And, in order to "prove" their maturity, or rather worth, they have to take the next step and bind themselves to another, either by law or a church.

More importantly, does marriage equal happiness? From what I have seen, this is not the case; far from it.

You should all know that marriage is now as valuable as the ink on the marriage certificate. Once the ink dries, the marriage is just as worthless as the ink.

People, what I'm trying to say is that: marriage isn't what it used to be.

I don't know what I want for myself now, but what is a certainty is that marriage is not a part of it.