Marriage. A small word with rather important implications that affects life. Now that the divorce rate is up to 60 percent, why would anyone want to get married? Possibly, for tax breaks.

Maybe that is not the issue, but rather people getting married too quickly with the notion of divorce as a “get-out-of-jail-free” card.

People should not get married with the mind set that if things get difficult they can get divorced. With that type of thinking, people could get married for the wrong reasons.

In the past year and a half, about nine people from my high school’s graduating class got married. Some of them also have children.

One individual is a divorcee at the age of 22, who admits she got married because she liked the idea of being married and getting a ring. What is it with women and rings? Who cares?

In the past five years, I have greatly changed. I could not even imagine being married to someone from high school, let alone being married at a young age. It seems people my age are on two sides of the spectrum.

I do not understand the big rush to get married. I do look forward to being married and sharing experiences for the rest of my life with someone, but I am not done growing and finding out who I am.

Living together could be an option to consider before settling down. Some people say you should not live together before you get married. If an individual is committed to someone who is a potential spouse, why not live with him or her to see if you mesh well together?

Some people know this practice as “testing the waters.” That could be the only way, however, to find out if something is wrong with a potential partner.

What is the point of getting married at all? If you and your partner are committed to each other forever, a wedding is just an expensive party. The legal state of being married is just that, legal.

There is a difference between getting married because a couple loves one another and having a wedding to show off. Somewhere in between the two, some people are attached to the idea of having a big wedding and getting married to share assets.

It is hard to know what things are really supposed to be like because of the unrealistic stories that show people what love should be like.

Television depicts relationships as those dripping with romance impracticality with tons of sex and forgiveness.

People have ideals for the perfect person that are impossible to live up to. By the same token, I also know several people who settled and compromised things they expected for their lives and expected in their partners.

There must be some middle ground, and I think there probably is somewhere out there.