YSST: I love weddings

Not exactly rife with controversy, but in my circles it seems to be a daring thing to say.

We, the-hip-and-educated, don't love weddings.

Weddings have an ugly history of oppressing and objectifying women.

Weddings are narcissistic, naval-gazing rituals of opulence.

Weddings are expensive.

Weddings creative monstrous perfectionists out of normally laid-back women (and men.)

There's a grain of truth in everything I've just said, and I've probably argued all of the above to others at one point or another. (Most likely during my first undergraduate experience, when I first truly got to know my good friend Feminism. More on that later.)

However, I can honestly say that I have thoroughly enjoyed and loved 93.482% of the weddings I've attended in my day. (And I've been attending them frequently since birth, so that's a very impressive and completely legitimate statistic.)

Reasons I love weddings:

1.) Weddings bring people together.

2.) More specifically, weddings give people who love each other a reason to travel obscene distances just to remind themselves that they love each other.

3.) Weddings are communal. (Weddings help to build and sustain community! I sound like a pamphlet, but I really feel this way.)

4.) At weddings, I DANCE!

5.) Weddings are true inter-generational parties. (I dance with grandma's and babies all at once!)

6.) Weddings are a beautiful practice in optimism and positive thinking. (Why look at the black clouds of life when the silver linings ARE RIGHT IN YOUR FACE?!?!)

7.) I always make new friends at weddings. (This is my favorite hobby by far.)

Even at the most awkward weddings, people stand up for the requisite speeches and appreciate each other. For some people, this is trite and annoying... and to them I say, suck it up, I'm having a good time.