'till death do us part (or at least until someone better comes along?)

I'm young, I'm somewhat of an idealist and my friends have called me a romantic. I don't claim to be an expert on relationships, and I'm not that easy to get along with sometimes. But I do know what I believe in. One thing that I can depend on, in all of the crazy upheaval that has defined my life this year, are my values.

In a recent survey of more than 15,000 high-school aged children in the united states, only 58% were reported to believe that they would stay married to one person for their entire lives. 58%. It's obvious that the divorce revolution of the 1990's is affecting the children whose families it has involved - how can we believe in something if we've never been shown that it works?

As a child of multiple divorces, I have the unique perspective (or maybe not so unique any more) of knowing what happens when your foundation gets rocked to the core. I guess, therefore, I could be just as jaded as anyone else. And when I see my mom, now in her mid-fourties, growing and changing and finding new love and discovering new passions -- I can see the argument. As we move through the varied stages of life, how can we expect someone to grow and change and reinvent love and develop new passions along with us? It's a convincing thought, and freeing, I would guess, for people who feel as though the idea of forever is a bit too much to ask.

But in my heart I know that when I get married, it's going to be to my best friend my lover and my life partner, and when I say "until death do us part, I'm only going to say it once and I'm going to say it with all of my heart. This isn't me being idealistic or sappy - it's probably one of the most realistic things that I know about myself. I guess my whole hearted belief in the institution of marriage now puts me in the minority of people my age, which is really saddening. My parent's divorce didn't teach me that it's easy to leave a relationship that's not working -- it DID teach me the importance of knowing from the bottom of your being that you're marrying your soulmate.

People treat marriage like dating, now. And I mean, I've dated and kissed and thought that I loved a LOT of people. And from each person who I've opened myself up to in that way, I've learned incredibly valuable things about what I want in a partner, and about how to treat someone properly. That's what dating is about, right? Figuring out what you want and don't want, so that when the right person walks into your life you don't let them get away. And one day I know that when I tell someone that they're not getting away, I am going to mean it for the rest of my life.

It's just shocking that only 42% of my peers would agree.