Instant Gratification

I have seen this picture floating around pinterest lately and it struck a chord with me. It's a picture of an elderly couple with this quote on it "When asked how they managed to stay together for 65 years, the woman replied "We were born in a time where if something broke, you fixed it.... you didn't throw it away." I got to thinking about our generation again and have been wondering what happened to make it okay to just give up. And it's not just the gen-y-ers, but also the gen-x-ers and the baby boomers.

Most of my friends' parents are still married. In high school when my parents split up, I only had ONE close friend who's parents had been divorced. That was, and still is a rarity. Even out of my college friends, almost all of their parents are still together. However, statistics show otherwise. If you think of our grandparents' generation, they married young and stayed together forever. Sure, we're living longer, but we're also getting married later (if at all), but the divorce rates are still uncomfortably high.

The best advice I have been given about marriage is that if you are married for 40 years, you might have 10 bad years.... it may not be consecutive, but that means you have 30 good years. So many people say they were just "unhappy," in their marriage or relationship and that's why they called it quits. But I can guarantee you that you have been "unhappy," in your life before you were ever married...did you just quit yourself then, too?

We are so obsessed with having instant gratification. In the winter we get pale...which, is normal... but we want to look better and be as tan as we are in the summer... not normal. I used to go tanning, but haven't for about 4 years. It took the combination of seeing my mom's skin cancer spots after they had been treated and realizing I would rather be pale now and have beautiful skin later. We're all scared of aging and looking old... so people get botox to make them look younger and be wrinkle free. Well, turns out, there are studies that are linking botox to BRAIN TUMORS. Is that going to stop people? Probably not, because even though going in a tanning booth CAN GIVE YOU CANCER, people still do it. Just like smoking cigarettes CAN GIVE YOU CANCER, people still smoke them. Texting while driving? CAN KILL YOU or SOMEONE ELSE, but we want to send that dumb text message so badly that we can't wait until we're out of the car?

It's like we have all forgotten our lessons on patience. Good things come to those who wait. We need not to rush things, for good things take TIME. Everyone asks why I'm single and it takes every ounce of me to not ask them why are they being annoying? It's not like I know why... well I do. I'm picky. And I'm picky because if I am going to spend the REST of my life with someone... they're gonna have to be something spectacular.