Why still single ?

Yes, I am surprised but then not surprised at all :). Last night, I was reading about child marriage and all the atrocities committed against women. That just rekindled my memories and dread of never getting into a situation of being oppressed. It might sound like an exaggeration given the education I received and how my parents tried to be liberal. I've to say that it has been a huge learning experience for my parents, and growing up process from their own conservative background. Having seen plenty of "arranged" marriages where the couples are together because the woman does not have an option to call it off, being submissive though they are smarter than their dumbo-husbands etc, I always wanted everything to be of my choice. For that, I badly wanted the financial freedom. Leaving India seemed to be the only way I can buy time to discover myself and push the coin in choosing my partner based on my preferences. Of course, the journey has not been easy but at least I could say my life is still under my control. I also have to give credit to God for not making it work in situations where I wanted things to work even if things didn't jive well with my expectations/principles. Why am I writing about this?. Well, I am surprised how far I have come since I began the journey. I was extremely rebellious as a teenager in the sense I always opposed any form of oppression when people used to say things like .."act like a woman.. this is too much for a girl.. a girl is not supposed to wish for more" etc. I used to think .. in what way is a woman less deserving than a man and made a promise to myself that I will not let myself be disadvantaged because I am a girl. Over the years, I am less rebellious mainly because my immediate environment doesn't have narrow minded people and so called "seethed-into-tradition" people vocally denouncing my lack of adherence to timeline based milestones. Still, it is a tough path and at times, a painful journey. At times, I just hate expending energy trying to break the glass ceiling that exists for women in this world.