The year is 2018, but for some reason I still feel as if I’m trapped in 1918. I am a woman working three jobs and pursuing my master’s degree on a track towards my Ph.D.; and yet for my family, somehow that still isn’t good enough. When I go home I am hit with a barrage of questions:   “When are you going to stop and settle down? Men don’t like it if you are too smart, you know.”  “You are not going to be able to have children forever you know, the clock is ticking!”   “Aren’t you dating? I know some really nice boys your age who would be perfect and could take care of you.”  Regardless of intention, regardless of whether they believe these things are what is best for me, it makes it incredibly difficult to have a strong connection with my family when it feels as if they don’t understand me at all. These questions and ones like them go on and on, as if to say that the only way to be accepted as having any semblance of self worth is through finding a husband and having child and not due to my…