Lately I have been thinking about marriage. Before that I was thinking about love and relationships, but lately it’s been about marriage specifically. A really good friend of mine is getting married in May, and he is but one year older than me.

Growing up in Italy, marriage has always seemed super important to me and my friends. The Catholic influences on Italian culture make divorce not a taboo per se, but still something Italians try to avoid: it’s not as mainstream as it is in America. The way Italians avoid divorce is by marrying much later in life. The post-modern comment on marriage is that it’s “bourgeois”, so now more couples are opting out of it.

Growing up in South Carolina however had a much more distinct influence on the way I view all of this. Marriage is a HUGE deal in SC! Between purity rings, promise rings, and wedding rings…marriage