I Do or Not I Do

I’ve declared to my mom more than a few times that I’m going to end up following in her footsteps and spending my life single.  It might have started out as a pseudo-serious statement, uttered in my moments of greater romantic cynicism.  But I realized the other day that I really can’t picture myself getting married.  For all the social custom and persisting (if increasingly relaxed) expectation surrounding the institution, marriage fits awkwardly at best into my sense of life and self.