"I can't get married. I'm a 30 year old boy."
- Tyler Durden (Edward Norton), Fight Club

To my utter disgust, many of my peers have been expressing their hopes and desires regarding marriage. Naturally, when this happens I try to smooth over the conversation and attempt to change the subject with a cool, "Hey come on we're still young, stop getting ahead of yourself," or sometimes even, "Fuck it dude, you're not even seeing anyone right now."

Not that I have anything against marriage per se. After all, what is more respectable than taking on the responsibilities of starting your own family? What is more beautiful than proving your love for your other by dedicating the rest of your life to him or her? I just think that I, along with all of my peers, are just way too young.

When I see older relatives and friends who have been married for quite some time and now have a spawned underling or two, I see true beauty. Why? Because they've survived and surpassed the true horrors associated with marriage and child-rearing. They've managed to get their head out of the clouds, have hit rock-bottom once or twice, but have still managed to pick their shattered ass back up and put the pieces back together.

My friends are so in love with marriage. Let me enunciate that for you: my friends are not in love with their significant other, but they are in love with the institution of marriage. They love to mimic their favorite sitcom episodes and show off their ginormous engagement rings. They love to boast about how much more mature their boyfriend of 15 years older is, and how he'll most likely propose to her soon.

I even know someone who is blatantly proud of the fact that she was knocked up at the tender age of her early early adulthood, and how she's "learned so much" from the experience (trust me, she hasn't).

I really don't understand how hardship, misery, and complications makes life enjoyable. Let's be honest: marriage is hard; child-bearing is heard; fatherhood and motherhood is HARD. However, marriage, in all it's difficulties, is actually seen as a desirable trait by my friends. It's a title: "she's married now." It's something to be known for and known by.

"Oh I can't do that! My husband would kill me! He keeps me on such a short leash! [gigantic smile]";
"Ever since I had little Mimi, I can't even go out anymore! [beams with contentment and pride]";

Since when did marriage become a fashion statement? Since when did children become an accessory? 

The way I always saw it, people use the things around them - husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, child, money, etc. - to make up for their deficiencies and insecurities. The Bible says it best: those who boast have "received their reward in full."  I'm no different in that department, I usually cannot finish a sentence without mentioning school, work, or my hobbies. However, I would like to believe that none of my boasting involve me signing my life over to responsibilities that I'm just not ready to handle.

Scene.