Dating Outside of Culture
I feel like I’m in a huge predicament. I fell in love with a friend and we are now dating, and it is very serious. They are a different nationality than me, and my parents are both immigrants and very nationalistic. My parents gave me an ultimatum and said they want me to marry within our culture, otherwise they will cut me out of the family. And in case anyone says they will come around, I 100% know they will not. When they found out I started dating my boyfriend, they have been ignoring me since.
I am so lost. I am financially independent, so if they cut me out of the family i will be okay, however, I don’t want to lose contact with them. I also genuinely love my partner, have been in love for years, and see a future with them, and there is a possibility of proposal next year. Either way it’s a lose lose for me. I either break up with him and resent my parents forever, thinking for the rest of my life that he is the one that got away and all these what ifs. Or I stay with him and lose the family that raised me.
Has anyone ever been in this situation? I have no idea what to do, my mindset is that I will be spending the rest of my life with my future partner, not my parents, and I should do what’s right for me.