As you watch each one of your friends getting married and having babies, there can be a certain catharsis around what it means to be single in your 30s.
Argentinian filmmaker Paula Schargorodsky attempts to unravel what being single really means, and, as she so poignantly and succintly puts it: "female freedom has an expiration date." At this age, she says, "a conservative curtain falls down."
Whereas your 20s are about experimentation and having fun, for singletons in their 30s - especially women - it becomes a mystery that other people are dying to know about.
Suddenly it becomes perfectly alright for people you don't even know to ask you the dreaded question: "When are you going to settle down?"
In the film, which appears on The New York Times, Schargorodsky acknowledges that part of it is her reluctance to settle down, or to settle for anything less than one big, all-consuming love.
But as her mother and father both tell her (and they should know - they got divorced after 33 years of marriage), settling down takes a lot of effort and work. "If you look for perfection," her dad says, "you're in trouble."
But how does it end? "After I finished filming," she says, "I met someone. He is imperfect, and I love him. This time I realize I can live with unanswered questions, and that’s fine."
Paula Schargorodsky is currently expanding the story in this Op-Doc video into a feature-length documentary, “Girl Behind the Camera,” and an online interactive project, “Get Over It.”
(H/T:Upworthy.com)