Are we settling for love?

We all have a basic idea of what we want in a relationship, a vision of how our significant other would be and how happy we would make one another. Unfortunately, not everyone's ideal relationship can be handed to them. So we ultimately settle for what we can get. Those who don't settle may end up alone and never achieving that happiness they once dreamt of. Someone close to me is settling and I'm not sure as to whether I support their relationship or not. Their care for each other is obvious, but whether they're with each other because they're madly in love is less. But should they opt out of their relationship and join the rest of the nation who make up a large percentage of adults marrying older now than ever before or should they.. just settle?

What continually makes me worried is what do you do when you're never able to find that "perfect" person. I'm only eighteen, but I mean, the crushes I have developed have been less than stable, functional, or normal. With the internet, younger generations such as myself should have a bigger advantage of finding our "perfect" person. Yet, somehow, it seems to have become more difficult for us to maintain a stable relationship and/or marriage. Statstics that state that 50% of marriages end up divorces is just ludicrous. Which makes me hate the word "love" even more than ever before. Our inability to want more and to not realize what we have blinds us from the happiness that is actually in front of us. So is settling the only answer? Are we destined to just be with the "less than perfect" person and live out our lives? Times like this makes arranged marriages seem perfect, because the concept of one learning to love each other seems to work moreso, than our western philosophy of dating and meeting. I'm not turning primeval or anything, but here's my question for you think:

"How do you achieve that normal, FUNCTIONAL, happy relationship?"

Short entry today.. it's been ages since I've written in here, but I thought I should soon. And it's been bothering me a little bit too. So there we go.. I still have my Purposes of Life series to finish, so more to come on that.