Love or Bread?
By Cindy Lee

In this modern age, marriages are no longer about agreements between families or political gains. People don't get married for the same reason anymore. Generation Y has endless freedom. So let's look deeper into how and what the generation Y considers before tying the knot.

After interviewing three persons from generation Y about their opinions on what our generation considers for marriage, there are two main categories in marriage consideration -- love and bread. Love refers to affectionate feelings between two persons; while bread, taken from the idiom "bread and butter", symbolizes money.

Love + Bread
Emily Tang, a third-year student, believes that girls have different perspectives in different stages. Between the ages of 16 to 21, girls will emphasize "love". They will only consider their feeling and romance. As time passes, their thoughts on love will change. Love has varied stages. She thinks that, usually when couples fall in love, they are in the romantic, honeymoon stage, in which the love among couple can be described as fireworks, very brilliant and bright. But it won't last forever. After the moment that fireworks explode, there will remain only smoke. To conclude, she believes that a long lasting relationship should not only have love, but also bread.

Love + Hard Work
Un Leng Chan, a 24-year-old girl, who is going to marry her fiancée of nine years this December. When it comes to the question of love or bread, she has another idea. She has been together with her fiancée for nine years. She thinks a long lasting relationship--the love among a couple should be like a still river, which flows steadily. She says, if one only considers bread without a mature love, it won't work. Leng believes that two persons can work hard together to build a happy relationship.

Love
Chao Ka Meng, a 22-year-old fireman. When he comes to discussing the topic between love and bread, he has some interesting ideas. Being young, he wants to explore more to figure out what he wants. "Life is too short, so we should enjoy, live wild and free while we're young. When it comes to marriage, I think of the passionate feeling the most. I have stable monthly income, so 'bread' is not a problem for me. One day when I meet the girl of my dreams, I will settle down and get married," Chao says.

After reading about several Ys' opinions on marriage, what do you think? Do you think love should take a bigger portion than bread when marriage is concerned, or vise versa? In my point of view, both are equally important. With love, you can find out a way to work hard with your partner, to strive for the future, and with bread, you can have a stable life.