Aside from the general definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman, we all have our different definitions and views of marriage. Here in my country, marriage is seen as a very important achievement that everyone must partake in. Not only is it an important achievement, but it is an achievement that is expected to come at the right time. Your mother not only reminds you of marriage but also lets you know that you are very ripe for it. The problems come when you are not ready, or when you are ready and your partner is not ready. This is when you will hear statements like 'all my friends are married, except me.' It becomes worse when you are still single and searching. At this point, no one is thinking of what marriage is; the hurry is after fantasies maybe that of wedding gowns, suits, flowers, or rings. We forget the most important thing of staying married after getting married.
While some will say I'm searching for true love, others will say I'm searching for my 'missing rib'. I personally love to use the latter phrase because I believe so much in compatibility. Love is not enough for a marriage to be successful. Compatibility and chemistry are also important.
You can imagine a scenario of getting married to the one your heart beats for, the one you truly love. But as time goes by, you realize you both argue about everything, there's no understanding of each other, and no one wants to yield. You will hear some couples say 'this is not the person I got married to; he/she has changed'. Now the truth is that whatever it is, it was there from the beginning; nothing has changed, maybe they were all covered by the heat of love. But I don't believe that; I believe the arising problems of incompatibility were overlooked because we thought the person would change because he/she loves us, or we thought that we would be able to manage them and see them as shortcormings.
Anyway, these are the reasons why there's always courtship before marriage. It is a pity that some people go through that stage without making the most use of it. Their main focus may be on social media and unnecessary intimacy. What they get after marriage are unbearable problems that arise from incompatibility and lack of natural chemistry, which may unfortunately lead to divorce.
I see marriage as a dual adventure of two matured people who love, understand, and have genuine concern and respect for each other. They are 80% compatible and have the tendency to adjust to each other in certain circumstances.
No one should be forced into marriage, and somehow I wish our old people can understand that things are a bit different now from their time, so they won't push their children too much into relationships.
I don't know what your opinion is about this topic; this is just my own views on it. Feel free to express it in the comments section.
Thank you so much for reading, I truly appreciate.
This post is in response to #aprilinleo daily prompt, day 21st. You can check it out here