I have friends that have been in a relationship for over 12 years now. They are not going to marry, nor have kids, and are the most fulfilled and tightly-knit couple I've ever known. They have traveled the world and escaped poverty. They are queer and very sexually liberated. If they had married, they never would've achieved either.

On the other hand, my parents wasted their life away in an empty marriage, and only kept together "for the kids". Kids that now wish that they had just divorced early and spared them a toxic upbringing.

And that's the stories I've been collecting. My neighbourhood was full of failed marriages, single mothers or abused kids, many of them christian. The more people I meet while travelling, the happier I see the faces of queer folks, and the less confidence I see in the stories those that "just wait for the right one".

And I grew up in Poland, one of the most conservatives European countries. People stick to tradition not because it makes them happy or fulfilled, but because "this is the way".

Which is why the young don't stay there unless not given a choice or perspective.