If you happen to be in your 20′s, or you were in your 20′s, you know the kind of pressure your family may put on you to find a wife/husband. I would compare being single while in your mid to late 20′s like an episode of 24; the clock just keeps ticking down to 30. Once you hit 30, well, as an Asian-American, you’re not expected to be single when you hit the big three oh.
But have we ever asked ourselves, why is that? Why do our grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. distant cousins care so much that we happen to be single? Has anyone ever considered the idea that we may be pretty happy single? For sure, the human race will live on for years to come, so there’s no real need to carry on the species. So why? Why do we settle for someone that we are not compatible with and end up having a nasty, bitter divorce with 2 years later because we realize that person is a raging b*tch or a giant d-bag?
The answer is pretty simple in my opinion. We are desperate. Desperate to not grow old and gray by ourselves. Loneliness definitely is the number one scariest thing for most people. I don’t believe it only applies to women, either. I think men have the same alarm that sounds off in our minds. We think, “oh god, I’m in my late 20′s and I still don’t have a girlfriend, how am I ever going to get a wife, have kids, and grow old?” As a result, we go to the club, bar, Vegas, foreign countries, anywhere we can get out to meet that special someone, only to forget, we’re more than likely not to meet our future spouse at ‘XS’ or ‘Cabana Club’.
That leaves the question: where do we go looking for love? If we’re out of college, working full-time, and have had the same group of friends for more than a few years, meeting someone that you are actually going to be interested in and that is interested in you is slim. Friends aren’t likely to introduce you to a mutual friend because of the potential baggage that could come with it in case of a break up. An office romance is always unpleasant if it goes south. And joining a dating site is basically like announcing to the world, “I have nothing else, help me out!”
My thought is that our purpose in life is not just to reproduce and carry on our genes to the next generation. Our purpose is to live our lives meaningfully, develop insight and wisdom through experience, and eventually pass that wisdom onto the next generation, even if they are not our own kin.
I believe the saying is, “blood is thicker than water”, but I would say it’s more like “love is stronger than blood”.
