Alexis Williams | Staff Writer

Ever been so angry with someone that you used the phrase, “I just want to push him/her off a cliff”? Well, 22-year old Jordan Graham didn’t take this phrase so loosely. Graham is currently being questioned about the truth of how she “found” her husband of eight days dead in a national park. With her story changing by the minute, my guess is she will be found guilty and that she really did push her husband of only eight days off of a cliff.

This tragedy has brought up the discussion of how the event most people “fantasize” about in the rockiest moments of marriage has become a reality. It is not uncommon to hear people say “Don’t get married” or “It was the worst decision I ever made” or other comments that lead one to believe marriage is nothing but a bottomless black hole of awfulness. Although I, too, have heard these comments, and heck yeah it scares me! But overall, I think that what is wrong with the world today is not marriage itself but how individuals go about marriage.

There have been statements about this case leading to the idea that Graham wanted a wedding but did not want to be married. This seems to be a popular idea in today’s culture. Whether it be Pinterest, TV shows like “Say Yes to the Dress” or “Bridezillas”, now more than ever women are fantasizing about their dream weddings, dresses, and bridesmaids and much less about their dream man. Now I’m not saying this is true in every case, but it seems like most females around my age have their wedding planned out much more than they do how they will meet the man to fit their wedding dream.

I think people tend to forget that marriage is meant to be forever. While divorce and separations have been on the rise for decades, the idea of marriage is that is to be “till death do us part”. Although I am no expert on marriage, or even how to keep a relationship going “till death do us part”, I do think that part of the problem of failed marriages is this vision of a wedding, family, and perfection that leads people to believe there will be more positive than negative in their future. People tend to have overly optimistic views about the decision to get married. People assume the problems in the marriage will be minute enough to overcome.

If it were up to me, if you just want a wedding, throw a big party and wear a white dress with a really hot date. That would be fun as well without the lifelong commitment attached. If you really don’t like your boyfriend, don’t marry him. If you think you will get annoyed of a marriage, don’t get married! Plenty of people are happy out of wedlock with significant others who are not legally bound to them. Not only that but people are happy being single in general; just because the general public likes the idea of marriage does not mean they actually like being married. Be smart about things; forever is a long time and love gets tossed around a bit too easily. Whatever you do, never intentionally push someone off of a cliff, but I guess I just thought that was common sense.