Beliefs on Marriage and Divorce

Marriage and divorce are culturally ruled, as I have noted from my interviews with friends and family of different cultures who have married, perhaps some have divorced, and with each experience in love they have culturally accepted values that pertain to their overall ideals and values on love, marriage, shared values, etc. The purpose of this paper is to establish a clear understanding of human nature as it relates to the portrait of adulthood and mate selection; institution of marriage, procreation, and even divorce as it relates to acceptance of failed expectations and moving on. I was not surprised to learn that the people I interviewed were traditional in their beliefs that marriage is a serious commitment that should be respected and approached for longevity.

One thing is for certain – the American culture is a melting pot of many different cultures and traditions both inherited and transformed from old country to new customs accepted and deemed appropriate by children of each generation. The experiences of my parents, for example, who separated after 20 years of marriage, is an interesting example of two people from different cultures (father from Puerto Rico and mother from Philippines), who believed that divorce was unacceptable, and they both came from parents who were married for life. My mother’s definition of love “is an undesirable feeling that gives her inspiration to better herself.” She is bitter due to a misconception of what marriage is supposed to be. She went into it wanting a narrative love story of a sweet, romantic, attractive, intellectual who would serenade her similar to the traditional courtship of my grandmother’s days. Instead she found out they had mutual differences and it became abusive. ...

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...riage only because I strongly believe in self-sustainability. I want to travel, succeed, and progress in my career without the help of a “significant other”. I want to have fun in my life and experience all there is to experience. If I decide to get married, what happens when ten years and two kids down the road, I realize I want to go my own way or try something different? What happens if I reach a point where sex with my partner is non-existent and we can no longer stand each other, for lack of better words, disgust each other—then what? If that were to ever happen, I would want the freedom to explore my own options and discover what else might work better for me. With the truth that more than half of marriages are resulting in divorce, and as much as I would like to believe that I am an exception to this number, I would rather not put myself in that position.