Hitched

Thanks to society, there’s a stigma that women need to achieve everything by the age of 30. *Cue universal uproar*.

Thanks to this ridiculousness, women have adopted a Pankhurst-inspired energy to embrace life when things don’t work out by this grand old age.

Like me, for example who rebelled against this ‘achieving everything’ malarky by not knowing how to change a lightbulb. HA, screw you double standards. Until last week when I needed to change a lightbulb.

I’m now a confident and capable lightbulb changer. Sorry to let everyone down.

Obviously, to anybody with self-respect, the reality of life is that everyone reaches different stages at different times.

Like the time my friends committed to career promotions but I couldn’t commit to just one nightclub on a night out.

So, as we live in the pressure to meet unrealistic expectations, I have a confession…

Recently, I accidentally fell into one of society’s ‘acceptable’ boxes. I turned 30 and got married in the same year.

*Cue gasps from fellow millennials*. I’m sorry! (I’m totally not sorry).To make things worse, my husband is lovely. Eurgh, I know!

Settling down wasn’t a race for me. It just so happened that it was at this point in my life I met a man who I fell in love with and I decided to marry him.

In my newly settled life, I enjoy leaving work nights out early (or not going at all). I’m happy sharing the load with my life partner (and by ‘sharing the load’ I mean I load the laundry basket with mounds of clothes and my husband does the washing).

But don’t worry – I didn’t leave my independence at the ceremony.

I value my input in the world and I value my place within it. So much so that I decided to keep my own name – something which even in 2021 is surprisingly controversial.

My husband and I have spent most of our married life so far justifying to people why I should carry on being called what I have always been called.

I’ve done a lot in my name. For starters, I won the human hoover award at work for eating up the office snacks.

So the moral of the story is sometimes you’ll be where you want to be in your life and sometimes you’ll be pining for something else. But regardless of where you’re at – be kind to each other as you go through the motions.

Now if you don’t mind me, my husband has baked a cake and it’s my job to eat it.