When my mother asked her little girl, “What do you want to do when you grow up?” I responded, “I want to be a paleontologist.”

Although I agree with Ms. Coehlo (“Marriage overrated, should be abolished,” April 1) that marriage should not be considered a necessity for women, I do not agree that marriage in itself is “the greatest source of unhappiness in America these days.”

I will admit, when I was younger, I did dream occasionally of marrying the man of my dreams and raising a family. But more often than not, I was focusing on anything but.

Marriage is not the cause for the divorce rate in America — it is the people in those marriages. If two people love each other and get along well enough, then by all means they should be allowed to marry.

Oftentimes, it seems, it is an overlooked characteristic of the significant other that one spouse thought would change after marriage, but it did not.

Both my maternal and paternal sets of my grandparents have been married for 50-plus years, and my parents will be celebrating their 24-year anniversary this year. Their marriages are happy because neither spouse has made a decision that put his or her marriage on the line.

No one in any of these marriages has ever had an affair or spent all of the family’s money on alcohol. My grandfathers and my dad were never verbally abusive to their wives, and my grandmothers and my mom have always been faithful to their husbands.

It is through their marriages that they have found happiness, along with financial security and the knowledge that they’ll be taken care of when they grow old by someone who will acknowledge their wishes that come with the contract they agreed to when they said “I do.”

This is the same security that same-sex couples wish to have, to spend the rest of their days with someone whom they truly love and not risk their wishes to be denied by another family member, should anything happen.

For some women (and men), yes, marriage will bring happiness. But if the marriage does not work out, it is the fault of the people in that marriage, not the marriage itself. If they do divorce, maybe they would find someone that would be a better spouse.

I have never excessively dreamed of getting married, but that doesn’t mean that some day I won’t want to, and that doesn’t mean that I think others should not.

Marriage is not a necessity, but by no means should it be “abolished.”

Caroline Johnson

Sophomore

Geology