I don't really know how to start this, but here it goes. I (24M) have been with my girlfriend (27F) for 3 years now. We were so good together in the beginning, it was wonderful. It felt like nothing could go wrong between us. It wasn't very long into the relationship (4-5 months) that we both confessed our love for each other. How ever we had some hurtles to overcome if we wanted there to be any sort of future. I am a white boy and she is an Indian girl. I'm sure as most of you know, in the Indian culture they practice arranged marriages. Her family is no different. She moved from India to Canada to get away from that aspect of the culture and to go to school.

She went to college to be a data analyst and got a job almost right after she graduated. I on the other hand, I am a supervisor at a retail store and only took a few business courses through the college. I have been working my way up the ladder since I've been 14. I was in a management program through my company to become a store manager one day. She currently makes more then I do but if i become a store manager, I will make about double of what she does.

Over the past few years, we have been trying to convince her parents to agree to us being together. However, it has not been going very well. They have pulled out every trick in the book to try and turn us against each other but it hasn't worked. The biggest 2 problems they have with this relationship is that I am younger and my job. They say that I am immature, won't make enough money to provide for a family, can't handle having a family, too young to commit to anything, don't know anything about life, etc. They have gone to the extent of even trying to ruin my girlfriends career in Canada to get her to move back home. We have stuck together through all of this.

I finish the first stage of my management training in 2023. I was set to continue the second stage of the program in 2024 and the third in 2025. However, the company forgot to enroll me in the second stage and by the time I realized they forgot about me, It was too late. They would not make an exception for adding me into stage two even thought it was a few days past the registration deadline. Both of us were really mad at the company because of this situation but I enrolled into the second stage for 2025 early to make sure I got in. Between the end of 2023 and present day, retail has been going downhill. Theft is skyrocketing, prices are getting higher and higher, the amount of people will to work is getting lower. The job has been getting worse and worse, to the point that I want to find another career.

Here lies the current situation. I have voiced my concerns to my girlfriend about my current career and the challenges that I am facing. I no longer enjoy my job and fear I will start to hate in in the future, I dread going to work sometimes. I want to find something else. She does not agree with me whatsoever. She thinks that since I already committed to this specific career, I need to stick to it no matter what. We have been fighting about this for the past few days. She keeps bringing up the following point in the fights: 1. Her parents were right about me being too immature and will never be able to earn enough money to provide for the family. 2. Since I can't commit to the career I chose, she no longer trusts me to commit to our relationship. I try to explain to her that just because I am thinking of changing careers doesn't mean I can't commit to our relationship. They are two separate things but she doesn't see that. I have tried everything to convince her that a career change is ok, there is nothing wrong with it. But now, she says that I am being childish and she can't trust me anymore.

Today we had another huge fight about this and she gave me an ultimatum, I can either keep going with my current career path and our relationship will be ok or If i change for something else, I can kiss our future goodbye. We would breakup because she doesn't have anytime to waste waiting for me to get my next career settled before starting a family. She would go back home and get married and start a family now because she is '"getting too old". Those are her words exactly. She wants an answer asap.

I've been thrown for a loop, someone who I thought would stick by me forever no matter what is going on, now wants to end things because I want to change to something that will make me happier in life. I fell like my whole heart has been ripped out and stomped on.

Sorry for the long message. I don't know what to think or how to feel right now.