The ‘made it’ theory

I am a 41 year old single woman who has never been married or engaged nor do I have any children. A big statement, I know – but according to my cultural heritage, this defines me. I haven’t ‘made it’.

I am the oldest of 3 siblings and none of us have ‘made it’, so you can imagine the disappointment our parents feel. Of Greek background, getting married and having children is what we are brought up to do. To make matters worse, none of us have given them any grandchildren. Feeling the pressure yet? We sure do!

From our many years of constant badgering and pestering and the numerous conversations and comparisons against other families, we three came up with a theory – the ‘made it’ theory.

According to our parents, one has ‘made it’ if:

• They’re engaged
• They’re engaged but never marry
• They marry
• They live together and don’t get married
• They have children in wedlock
• They have children out of wedlock
• They divorce (you still keep the title)
• They remarry (doesn’t matter how many times)

So you see, I had many options to ‘make it’, but because of circumstance I opted otherwise.

Don’t get me wrong. Our parents love us unconditionally and are proud of our achievements and successes but there is one thing missing and that is our inability to carry forward their gene pool (not for our lack of trying)!

Life isn’t over yet and I haven’t lost hope. I actually believe I’m going to ‘make it’ really big someday to make up for all the lost time. Here’s hoping mum and dad are still around to witness it.

Maggie