To many, I am only a few years away from becoming a ticking time bomb for the lack of a man's three-month salary on my ring finger. At 21, I am placed almost two years behind my parent's generational ideal age for marriage and six years away from my own. However, I find myself thinking more about the three years of undergraduate studies I've accomplished and the one year I have left before receiving my bachelor's. I think about applying for my first full-time job and earning enough money to pay rent for a permanent address all on my own. Today, of young adults aged 18 to 29, 67 percent believe that society would be just as fulfilled without traditional marriage and children. I happen to be part of that 67 percent.

I am not against marriage, I believe it to be a beautiful and trying partnership that should be admired. Nothing would make me happier than marrying the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. However, I also do not believe a marriage in my twenties, or at any point in my life for that matter, is needed in order to gain gratifying experiences from life. So here are 100 things, married or not, I can choose to embrace in life.

1. Raise a fur baby

2. Go to the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas

3. Publish my first novel

4. Be the first in my family to graduate from college

5. Earn my Master's Degree

6. Receive a Doctoral Degree

7. Positively Influence Someone's Life

8. Get my own place with my own money

9. Stand in Times Square on New Year's Eve

10. Make a positive change in my community

11. Rediscover my faith

12. Overcome my S.A.D.

13. Visit the Grand Canyon

14. Watch "Hamilton" and "In the Heights" on Broadway

15. Attend the Summer Olympics

16. Go on a road trip with friends

17. Write about my family's history

18. Backpack through Europe with someone that is very special to me

19. Write a mass publication of the knowledge I've acquired through observation

20. Pay my respects at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum

21. Build a snowman

22. Contribute to furthering the equal justice of all people

23. Visit King's Cross Station

24. Work to improve the public education system in the U.S.

25. Travel through the canals of Venice, Italy

26. Reflect in the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam

27. Work to improve safety for women and eliminate rape culture in my communities

28. Gain a high level of confidence and love for myself

29. Perfect my Spanish

30. Gather and read enough books to create my own diverse and extensive personal library

31. Get a pixie cut

32. Stay in a cabin by a lake

33. Join Peace Corps

34. Teach in New York

35. Disassemble the school-to-prison pipeline

36. Take the Harry Potter Warner Brothers Studio tour in London

37. Meet Emma Watson

38. Sit in an igloo

39. Pay off all of my parents' debts

40. Fly on a plane

41. Cry at a Taylor Swift concert

42. Visit the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

43. Take my family on a nice vacation

44. Eat pizza in Naples, Italy

45. Donate my hair to Locks of Love

46. Buy my parents tickets to a Dallas Cowboys home game

47. Pay off my student debt

48. Offer my brother aid through his college education in any way possible

49. Learn ASL

50. Live outside of the U.S. for some time

51. Teach English in a foreign country

52. Get in shape

53. Clap along to the busking tunes of the Fergies band in Brisbane, Australia

54. Work to improve the livelihood of lower and middle class people of color in the United States.

55. Speak at a university

56. Adopt a child or several children

57. Try a vegan diet

58. Order a Diet Coke and a glass filled to the top with ice at a restaurant in Barcelona, Spain

59. Get over my hemophobia and donate blood

60. Sing along at an Ed Sheeran concert

61. Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge

62. Watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in person

63. Get laser eye surgery

64. Read the Bible from cover to cover

65. Visit the Mayan Temples in Mexico

66. Buy and furnish my own home

67. Contribute to creating a more productive education system at my old high school

68. Appreciate the architecture and art of Florence, Italy

69. Host a Thanksgiving dinner

70. Learn more about the history of my hometown

71. Volunteer at an animal shelter

72. Visit the Basilicas of Rome

73. Own a piece of land

74. Experience a White Christmas

75. Create a non-profit organization

76. Sit at the feet of the Christ the Redeemer statue above Copacabana Beach

77. Plant a tree and watch it grow

78. Become totally self-sufficient

79. Hear Malala Yousafzai speak in person

80. Startup a scholarship

81. Create the ultimate classroom library for my students

82. Ride a train through a scenic route

83. Study Abroad

84. Be immersed in the sacred Cenotes of Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico

85. See my voice make a difference in a social movement

86. Purchase my first car

87. Visit the Hollywood Walk of Fame

88. Write a song I'd be proud enough to see published

89. Absorb the beauty of Barcelona, Spain

90. Explore the jungles of Cancun

91. Live in a townhouse

92. Lead my writing by the example of St. Francis de Sales

93. Learn to turn the other cheek when tested

94. Experience a Coldplay concert

95. Overcome my fear of love

96. Celebrate the New Year in Sydney, Australia

97. Be in the same vicinity as the Pope

98. Hike the Appalachian Trail in south-central Pennsylvania

99. Help direct a movie based on one of my written publications

100. Ride through a tunnel in the back of a pickup with my arms spread out

So I'm in my twenties, I have yet to be jaded by the obstacles of life and am unsatisfied with permanence. I look for love not in one person, but in myself and everything I experience. I will not marry simply because I feel like I have to. Finding someone that fulfills my ideals of a suitable partner who reciprocates my feelings is not within my power. However, it is within my power to go out and fulfill some of the many aspirations I have for myself.