I'm noticing that many people my age or thereabouts seem to still be stuck on the want for marriage, which I find a little surprising. Especially given that many said people in my orbit happen to be in some kind of creative and/or intellectual field: painters, writers, printmakers, technologists, academics, and so forth. These are the kind of vocations that are typically associated with unconventional thinkers, but how unconventional can one's thinking really be if they are so keen on adopting an awfully conventional lifestyle choice? One instilled in us by family and society at large. One can't really claim to be a unique maverick, immune to social norms if they fall for one of the most widely spread, seldom-questioned social norms of all.
Of course I say this as someone who was once married himself, someone who liked to think of himself as a creative, unconventional thinker, but it was only the experience of marriage itself that helped me recognize its inherent flaws (still on great terms with my ex btw). The funny thing is, many people of a certain age are quick to accuse those less keen on marriage of not having grown-up yet, of being infected by some malicious “Peter Pan Syndrome”, and “not taking the relationship seriously”. But, if you look at older folk, the ones in their sixties who have been widowed or divorced and become interested in starting something new with someone else; they don't care about marriage. They don't typically care about their new partner's job or education, nor do they necessarily care a whole lot about sex, and they certainly don't care about having children. The only thing they care about at that point is companionship. Companionship with someone they get along with.
It is only towards our later years do we realize what is truly important in life. Perhaps what younger people can learn from this is the understanding that genuine companionship is the thing that matters most in a relationship at any stage. Everything else is secondary and beyond.
