Marriage

Considering my religious background, I always figured I would marry, as oppose to just move in with my partner. Yet, now it seems like marriage is a formality many people are opting to skip. It’s seen more like a waste of money, and an unnecessary step, rather than a given. More often than not, people are choosing to simply live together, have children, and never make it legal. And if they choose to get married, the wedding portion is skipped. It’s more like, lets sign the papers but not advertise the union.

I’m tempted to do the same.

Considering the cost of tuition, and how important money is in terms of providing your children with opportunities, a big wedding seems unwise. It’s interesting because lately I’ve been thinking about children. I don’t intend to have them now, but the idea of being a mother is more tangible now than it ever has been. I find myself thinking about how I’d raise them, how my pregnancy experience would be etc. However, I don’t find myself thinking about marriage. Marriage still doesn’t seem tangible to me. I don’t think about the proposal, or my partner, or my wedding day, or any of that. I skip over that entire step, and go straight to motherhood.

But then I think about marriage without money in mind. There are legal privileges, and rights you receive when you are legally married. Also psychologically speaking, children with married parents tend to be better situated, than children with parents that aren’t legally married but live together. Lastly, the religious significance of marriage is something I consider very beautiful.

So all this to say, I’m very tempted to just sign a few papers and call it a day. And maybe that’s because I’m young and marriage isn’t something I sympathize with just yet. However, I’m not completely abandoning the symbolism of marriage, the spirituality in it, the unity, the outward expression of it….