Nashville Marriage Studio

I’m part of Generation Y.  We’re a plucky group that has recently come of “marrying age” in a time when marriage may not be that desirable.  Sure, marriage might mean we become better bloggers, but is it worth it?  Between a horrible economy and a general trend towards doing “grown up” things, like marriage, later in life… is Gen Y really up for the marital challenge?  I would say yes… and no. 

Optimism
No one can rain on Gen Y’s parade.  We truly believe that we can do anything.  And for us, “anything” includes having a great marriage.  Gen Y believes this despite observing our parents’ mediocre relationships or constantly hearing that dreadful “50% of marriages end in divorce” statistic.  Rocking at marriage requires optimism, even if it is a tad delusional.

Developed a Personal Brand
The best marriages are between two people who have a solid understanding of who they are as individuals.  Two healthy wholes make a great marriage.  Gen Y-ers have this understanding because we are kind of obsessed with our personal brands.  We are obsessed because, well, we have to be.  Everyone Googles each other, and we need to control what is being seen by the masses.  More than that, we want careers that line up with our passions. We can’t have those careers if we don’t know what we’re passionate about, if we don’t know who we are.  Our marriages will rock because we spent our singlehood really figuring out who we are.

Team-Oriented
Everyone who talks about Gen Y talks about how “team oriented” we are because we grew up playing soccer.  Penelope Trunk even points out that we go to prom in groups.  We get teamwork.  We’ve been doing the “I’m not the center of the universe” dance for a while, and it’s this perspective that is going to allow us to rock marriage.

There are plenty of reasons Gen Y is set up to succeed, yet there is one particularly big reason we might suck…

Reality is Depressing
The first time we saw Laguna Beach we asked, “Is this real?”  We couldn’t tell.  We couldn’t tell because we’ve been on a steady diet of fake for years.  We’ve grown up thinking women should look like Victoria’s Secret Angels and our houses should be as cool as the ones on Cribs.  When our lives don’t turn out as cool or as exciting as L.C.’s we become depressed and think, “But this isn’t what I was expecting!”  The same can happen with marriage.  When our marriages aren’t as passionate as the couple from “The Notebook”, are we going to become let down and bail?

Of course, all of this is assuming we still subscribe to the outdated institution of marriage…