If I was in Bridgerton, I would marry for love and this is why.

I am not looking for a tax break. I don’t want to sign a prenup. I want your soul and I want to devour it. I want to be pampered and noticed. I want to have meaningful discussions about serious topics. I want to disagree without arguments. I want to watch movies and talk about them afterward. I want to be understood when I don’t say a word and I want to say sorry when I make a mistake. I want to forgive and I want to learn. I want to know what you like for breakfast and know your mood by the way your face lays. I want to leave you alone when you need time and I want to trust that you will always return. I want to be unstoppable. I will stop for no one but them. It is not a fairy tale, it is inconvenient but I want to be inconvenienced for love. I want unpredictable and dangerous kinds of love. The kind that people don’t believe in anymore. I want to reach out and feel my existence in another human. I want to drown in their arms. I want to steal their kiss from everyone in the entire world. I am greedy. I will not settle for anything less than that and when I find it, I will cradle it like a newborn baby. I will water it like a plant. I will take care of it because true love is the only thing that matters to me. I suppose I am a bit of a hopeless romantic. I fear there are not many like me left.

Marrying for money is just a modern-day arranged marriage. A silent agreement between two people who don’t believe they can find love. Who have decided that comfort is enough. That status is enough. That anything is better than being single. Marriage has never been about love. Marriage has never been a sacred bond between two souls. It is a transaction. A performance. A box to check before you turn thirty. The institution of marriage does not promise joy or even safety. It promises paperwork, prenups, and curated photo dumps. It promises lies. I wonder how many people got married to the wrong person. Who started a family with the wrong person because the outside of their lives seemed to be more congruent. Souls do not care about money. They do not care about fame. They know what matters. I have very little hope for love some days. I am chained to my yearning on others. Today is one of those days where I have given up. I am not saying that people don’t marry because of love. I am saying that arranged marriages are not a thing of the past. People have just gotten trickier, and humans have become more soulless. And it’s ruining my chances.

Nearly 50% of marriages in the U.S. end in divorce. And among those who stay, 20 to 25% admit to cheating. This isn’t commitment. It’s quiet misery with matching towels and security in a shared bed. We’ve traded romance for convenience. Passion for partnerships. Desire for home decor. Love for a following count. We yearn from a distance and sit at home. I would rather be alone, and so I am.

Don’t get me started on the people who just marry for marriage. The people who want to keep the tradition alive. The people who are terrified of being alone. The people who don’t hitchhike the galaxy to find the right person.

I pity them.

I pity anyone who chooses power over presence.

I pity anyone who believes love is a fantasy but loves money like it has a heartbeat.

I pity anyone who would rather be envied than understood.

We were not built for this.

For polite smiles and separate lives.

For reproducing and carrying on the family name.

For weighing options and stats in others and making the best decision based on societal expectations.

For sharing a bed but not a soul.

WE WERE MEANT FOR LOVE. The kind that you can’t help. Romeo and Juliet type love. Shakespeare wrote about it hundreds of years ago and we didn’t learn anything. Now his words are forgotten or translated and all beauty is lost.

Love is not fucking optional.

Love is the whole point.

GET IT TOGETHER PEOPLE!!!!