Growing up, divorce was not something I was familiar with. I grew up in a Catholic home with parents who have been married for well over 30 years now. It always surprised me how often I would hear my friends talking about their parents filing for divorce.

When did wedding vows stop being forever promises and start becoming just words couples say on the altar?

The divorce rate in the U.S. hovered near 50% in 2017.

That means 50% of the people who once stood on the altar decided to take back their promises and honestly, that makes me so sad.

As someone who has never been married herself, maybe I simply don't understand how hard marriage can be, but I do understand what a promise is. Marriage isn't something you dive into or something to be taken lightly. I know couples my age who have gotten married right out of high school and divorced a few months later like it's nothing.

Maybe I haven't been married, but I've been in a serious relationship for 2 and a half years, majority of that time being long distance. My boyfriend is a firefighter and EMT who works weekly 24 hour shifts, meaning some days, we don't get to FaceTime or really text at all. Relationships take effort and time, 2 words that seem to often fall on deaf ears these days. In this age of technology, people want fast and easy fixes to everything.

Marriage will never be a simple thing, that I know for sure. Illnesses happen, financial issues come up, fights occur. But the whole point of making that vow of for better or worse is realizing that many times, you will be dealing with the worse. If you aren't prepared to handle that with someone and you don't love them enough to do it, then you're not in a position to get married.

My boyfriend and I often talk about many aspects of our future, like how we want to raise our children and what we will do if the other gets sick and needs a lot of care. Of course, we are young and possibly naive, but I think this is something you have to talk about at some point. You have to get to know the person you are with before you can decide if you can handle them forever. And if you truly love them, it won't feel like "handling" them at all.

Of course there are situations of abuse or infidelity that cannot be salvaged or are unsafe relationships to be in, but giving up so easily over petty things has become the norm. You promised that person that you would be there forever and what's the point of making that promise if you back out the minute things get hard?

I think this generation needs to take a hard look at WHY they're getting married before they actually do it. Marriage isn't easy or simple. It's a huge commitment. Don't jump into it if you aren't ready and don't give up so easily when it gets difficult.