People marry for all the wrong reasons. When I was a youngster, there was societal pressure to marry. I remember my mother telling me how lonely I was going to be if I didn’t marry. And that was pretty much the common theme back then. Marriage is a good thing, of course, but there are some people who simply should not marry. I’m one of them. I’m happy that I didn’t marry or have children. It’s just that I know I would not make a good wife or mother. A good marriage and successfully raising a family takes hard work, commitment and sacrifice. I know I don’t have what it takes, so why add to the statistics?
I see a lot of this in the navy. The military almost sets people up for failed marriages and this is probably the main reason the military divorce rate is so high.
It works like this: In many commands if your are an E-4 or below in rank, you have to live on base in a dormatory-style barracks and eat at the base galley. Unless you are married. If you are married, you get a significant supplement to you paycheck to pay for housing and food. Many young service members, 18 to 20 years old, take the plunge with their high school sweethearts because they want that extra income and the ability to move off base. Of course, the first time they deploy overseas, their teen-aged spouse is left at home alone with the freedom of having her own apartment and a bank account full of money. She's never really sowed her wild oats yet and hooks up with all the other members of the "lonely wives club" and very often, disaster ensues. It isn't really fair to blame it on her though. She's young and as you said, married for the wrong reasons.
You were wise!