I Got Divorced Before 30 and Why It Was the Best Decision I Ever Made
Riya Kumari | Jun 11, 2025, 18:23 IST
( Image credit : Pexels, Timeslife )
They say your twenties are for mistakes. I just chose to make mine legally binding. And then legally unbind it. Before I hit thirty. This isn’t a sob story. No crying on the bathroom floor with Ben & Jerry’s (okay, maybe once, and it was oat milk ice cream—calm down). This is the story of how I walked into a marriage thinking I was doing the grown-up thing… and walked out of it realizing I had just made space for the grown-up version of me to exist. Divorce before 30? Yep. Regrets? Zero. Lessons? Oh, honey. Buckle up.
Nobody dreams of getting married just to leave. No girl grows up fantasizing about a mandap only to imagine walking away from it one day. But sometimes the bravest thing you’ll ever do is leave a life everyone else says looks “perfect”—because you know what it’s costing you on the inside. I got divorced before 30. And while the world quietly whispered failure, I knew what it really was: an awakening. Not a rebellion, not a phase, but a return. To the woman I almost buried beneath compromises. To the voice I kept silencing just to keep peace. To the self I kept waiting to come back—until I realized I had to go get her. This isn’t a pity story. This is a permission slip. For every woman who’s sitting in a perfectly decent home, in a perfectly decorated marriage, wondering if love should feel like survival.
1. Good Enough Isn’t the Same as Right
A lot of women stay because “he’s not that bad.” He doesn’t cheat. He doesn’t hit. He remembers birthdays. There are worse men out there. And just like that, we end up mistaking decency for destiny.
But let’s be clear—just because someone isn’t wrong for the world doesn’t mean they’re right for you. If you find yourself slowly editing your personality, your dreams, your voice—what exactly are you preserving? Marriage shouldn’t require you to disappear.
2. You Can’t Sacrifice Yourself for the Sake of the Picture
There’s a kind of grief that comes with giving up on a story you once believed in. The wedding, the plans, the family WhatsApp group with matching profile photos. But it’s even sadder to live a life that looks perfect on the outside, and hollow on the inside.
Many women stay because leaving feels selfish. But what’s truly selfish is asking someone to abandon who they are, every single day, for the comfort of others. Choosing yourself isn’t betrayal. It’s repair.
3. Divorce Doesn’t Make You Broken. Staying Numb Does.
Divorce is scary. It threatens to undo everything you’ve built. But sometimes, those things were built on silence, not stability. On duty, not desire.
You don’t have to hit rock bottom to walk away. You’re allowed to leave a relationship that doesn’t inspire you. That drains you. That makes you feel like you’re always one wrong word away from emotional shutdown. Women are taught to endure. What if we were taught to feel instead?
4. You’re Not Weak for Leaving. You’re Brave for Wanting More
Leaving is not an act of collapse—it’s an act of construction. Of building a life that feels like home, not like hiding. A life where your dreams fit. Where your voice isn’t negotiable. Where love isn’t quiet resentment disguised as duty.
If you had the courage to walk out, you didn’t fail. You did what most people are too afraid to do: you looked truth in the eye and walked anyway. That is not weakness. That is legacy. You just made it easier for the next woman to choose herself too.
5. This Isn’t Just a Personal Win. It’s Cultural Change
Every time a woman leaves a marriage that stifles her, a thousand others silently feel seen. Because even today, the idea of a divorced woman in her twenties is treated like a cautionary tale.
But what if it’s not? What if it’s a milestone of maturity? What if it’s proof that women are no longer willing to be praised for suffering silently? You’re not ruining tradition. You’re rewriting it. For the better.
CLOSING THOUGHT
I didn’t get divorced because I gave up on love. I got divorced because I refused to give up on myself. This isn’t a story about escape. It’s about return. To truth. To voice. To alignment. And maybe that’s what marriage is supposed to be—a sacred space where both people get to grow, not just survive.
If your heart knows it’s not home, don’t wait for the world to agree. The world will catch up. But your soul can’t afford to wait. So to every woman who left quietly, bravely, or even with trembling hands—you didn’t walk away from something. You walked towards yourself.
1. Good Enough Isn’t the Same as Right
Wedding
( Image credit : Pexels )
A lot of women stay because “he’s not that bad.” He doesn’t cheat. He doesn’t hit. He remembers birthdays. There are worse men out there. And just like that, we end up mistaking decency for destiny.
But let’s be clear—just because someone isn’t wrong for the world doesn’t mean they’re right for you. If you find yourself slowly editing your personality, your dreams, your voice—what exactly are you preserving? Marriage shouldn’t require you to disappear.
2. You Can’t Sacrifice Yourself for the Sake of the Picture
Bride
( Image credit : Pexels )
There’s a kind of grief that comes with giving up on a story you once believed in. The wedding, the plans, the family WhatsApp group with matching profile photos. But it’s even sadder to live a life that looks perfect on the outside, and hollow on the inside.
Many women stay because leaving feels selfish. But what’s truly selfish is asking someone to abandon who they are, every single day, for the comfort of others. Choosing yourself isn’t betrayal. It’s repair.
3. Divorce Doesn’t Make You Broken. Staying Numb Does.
Cry
( Image credit : Pexels )
Divorce is scary. It threatens to undo everything you’ve built. But sometimes, those things were built on silence, not stability. On duty, not desire.
You don’t have to hit rock bottom to walk away. You’re allowed to leave a relationship that doesn’t inspire you. That drains you. That makes you feel like you’re always one wrong word away from emotional shutdown. Women are taught to endure. What if we were taught to feel instead?
4. You’re Not Weak for Leaving. You’re Brave for Wanting More
More
( Image credit : Pexels )
Leaving is not an act of collapse—it’s an act of construction. Of building a life that feels like home, not like hiding. A life where your dreams fit. Where your voice isn’t negotiable. Where love isn’t quiet resentment disguised as duty.
If you had the courage to walk out, you didn’t fail. You did what most people are too afraid to do: you looked truth in the eye and walked anyway. That is not weakness. That is legacy. You just made it easier for the next woman to choose herself too.
5. This Isn’t Just a Personal Win. It’s Cultural Change
Freedom
( Image credit : Pexels )
Every time a woman leaves a marriage that stifles her, a thousand others silently feel seen. Because even today, the idea of a divorced woman in her twenties is treated like a cautionary tale.
But what if it’s not? What if it’s a milestone of maturity? What if it’s proof that women are no longer willing to be praised for suffering silently? You’re not ruining tradition. You’re rewriting it. For the better.
CLOSING THOUGHT
If your heart knows it’s not home, don’t wait for the world to agree. The world will catch up. But your soul can’t afford to wait. So to every woman who left quietly, bravely, or even with trembling hands—you didn’t walk away from something. You walked towards yourself.