We are all the product of our sociological environments. Millions of different things combine to create millions of different combinations, resulting in unique individuals who can potentially find something in common with anyone with a shared sociological background. This includes race, gender, educational experiences, social status, sexual orientation, social roles, family expectations, and so on. What I have experienced is what has made me who I am and how I live my life is the result of what I have learned is expected of me, what I have decided makes sense to me and what I have realized that I like it and I don't like it. I was born the third of four children to a stay-at-home mom and a civil engineer. My parents eloped in 1965, and I've heard several stories about why they chose elopement over a traditional marriage. According to my parents, both of my grandfathers were violent drunks and each had several relationships. In the 1940s and 1950s, society expected women to stay with their husbands, regardless of the abuse they suffered. According to Stephanie Coontz, my grandmothers may have had difficulty finding a place to live due to possible inability to obtain legal residency on their own or sign contracts (1995). This may have been one of the reasons my parents chose to elope and keep their marriage a secret for a few months. They were in love and could see how my grandparents' marriages had fallen apart, and perhaps they thought the last people they wanted to get marriage advice from were people who were still married out of necessity or social expectation. My parents also came from different religious denominations; my father was raised Catholic and my mother was raised Anglican. My father was a devout Catholic and my mother had to attend catechism. This was a controversial issue, and my parents' marriage led my mother's parents to avoid them for a few years, until