"Somebody somewhere is thinking of you," I always try to remember this phrase whenever I get a loneliness trauma or think like any girl of my other half. That topic did not bother me much when I was younger. I can recall very well my college days, when I did not even have a make up set. I just had two pairs of jeans with a couple of tops and my clumsy pair of sneakers that I always put on. I used to save my polished looks just for my hangouts with friends, which were not frequent.
Boys were not even on my list of priorities. Whenever I heard of someone getting engaged or married, just a simple "Congratulations!" without bothering myself with insignificant details that are not of my business anyway. Yea, maybe when I ran into someone nice, I would think of the whole marriage and relationship thing, but when it came to features and my idea of my Prince Charming, I had absolutely no idea of what I wanted. "A nice guy who loves me," was my blunt answer back then.
So, what happened? I graduated and had to go through real life. To my surprise, I found many girls obsessed with the marriage idea, and people here and there talking about their past and current relationships, all the tricks to get someone entangled in your web of charms...,etc. For 2 years up till now, I have been listening to the same talks over and over again. "Did you know that Mariam got a Make Up artist on her wedding night for 2000 LE?" "Have a look at those engagement photos... Oh, I love the dress." "When will I get married? Why am I still single till now?" are some lines that I hear frequently to the extent that I have started to think and talk in the same manner.
By time I have realized that marriage has lost its sacred meaning of "happily ever after". Love is, for many people if not most of them, is one of the last priorities. Handsome, well-off with a good career path and a descendant of a good family are the common trending reasons why a man can be considered a good suitor. A friend who is married now told me once that when her husband told her back then that he was into her, she just said okay as she was too embarrassed to turn him down, then all of a sudden she discovered that she became "in love" with that poor guy.
When I asked another girlfriend of mine about whether or not she is in love with her fiancee, she shocked me saying, "I am 25 ya Noha, if I don't get married now, I will lose my chances to find someone else." I know that those two examples are extreme, and I also know that there are still many people who get married out of healthy reasons. But the sick notions and the superficial views are trending now.
Mom believes that my generation should not be intimidated by the whole marriage idea and fear that if it does not happen, our lives would come to an end. She thinks that we, girls, are now well-educated with loads of good opportunities ahead of us. She has a point, but what I see now is the absolute opposite.
Is it the way we were raised? Or is it a genuine innate urge inside each girl that makes her dream of that prince charming and that glamorous serene life to start on her own with her "significant" half? If so, then why not get married for the right reason instead of dying to get a ring on our index?
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