"I’m 26 now—the age the average American woman marries for the first time. And though society’s stock romantic narratives and rigid gender roles may seem like childish stories you grow out of with age and experience, I’ve noticed that the older I get, the more they attempt to exert their influence over my life. My peers and I—out of the dorm room but not yet into a mortgage—have found ourselves squirming under the slow suck of societal pressure, which encourages us all to settle down and get married already, or else acquire our dozen cats and our witching license and shut ourselves in forever."
— Amanda Hess, How to Ditch Happily-Ever-After and Build Your Own Romantic Narrative (via Good)
