Chapter One
Getting Started on a Starter Marriage
Isabel always wanted to get married. A twenty-nine-year-old public relations
executive from a New York suburb, she never lacked for male attention, though
she says, “I mostly dated the wrong people. I just dated whoever liked me
instead of trying to find the best person for who I am.” Despite a steady
stream of monogamous relationships, Isabel was afraid of ending up single.
“That’s why I married my husband,” she explains with a wry
laugh.
At twenty-five, she decided to marry a man she’d been dating for eight
months. “My friends were starting to get married, and they had had their
boyfriends for years before,” she explains. “I felt like they were
moving on with their lives, and I wanted to as well. I was pretty sure this was
the right person, and I was tired of getting screwed over by men and at least he
wasn’t doing that. We were both sick of the New York dating life, so we
were pretty relieved to be getting married.” Marriage was something Isabel
felt she was supposed to do. “You’re expected to get married, buy a
house, have two ... read full excerpt from The Starter Marriage and the Future of Matrimony ebook
