In my experience, life happens to everyone in a different way so it’s really hard to pin down specific patterns. While it is vital to understand yourself better and know what you want from your life, there is also a need to stay open to different outcomes than the ones you expect

I see advice to young women to absolutely not get married before xyz age and absolutely not do this before that or that before this and these kinds of approaches are so one dimensional. No two people go through life with exactly the same trajectory.

Where I was in life at 22 is not necessarily where my sister is when she’s 22. Everyone grows up at a different pace depending on their life circumstances, their personality, their nature and nurture etc. From what I’ve understood in all the years I’ve been alive, here’s the deal

Who’s to say that someone who got married at 23 to a person they loved took a wrong decision vs. Someone who chose an arranged marriage at 32 and are doing just fine. What if you refuse a marriage at 22 to a lovely person who promises to love and cherish you because you were told

you need to discover yourself and at 27 you have discovered that that person was your chance to true companionship and that ship has now sailed? One of my cousins got married at 23 and moved to Europe. She got a chance to pursue higher studies, live her life and chase her dreams

in a way her family in Pakistan would never have let her. Her marriage was her ticket to freedom. She would probably never have found out who she was living in the stifling environment that her family forced upon her here...

Another person I know got married at 31, got divorced at 32, got married again at 34 to someone who had been asking for her hand in marriage since she was 28. She’s now happily married with two wonderful children. What is right or wrong in these stories?

Things work out and things don’t work out. Marriage is no different. It’s okay to get married at 22 if you feel comfortable with the idea, if it’s what you want, if the person in question makes you feel happy, secure, cherished. It’s not okay to get married at even 30 if

you’re doing it out of social pressure, if you think the time is up or your window will pass or some other stupid shit that society forces down your throat.
People get married and find out they were not built for marriage.

People don’t get married and find out marriage would’ve truly made them achieve their true potential. People fall in love and then they fall out of love. Self discovery is not a time bound process. Don’t bind yourself under unnecessary timelines.

Let life happen to you and stay open to possibilities. Hopefully God sends your way the best of everything and it turns out better than what you imagined and even if doesn’t work out, there’s always another time.