DY: I actually slightly disagree that it’s entirely a good thing or that frum society (outside of the Torah’s boundaries) is not to blame, but I can’t really duke it out with you as I’m about to get on a transatlantic flight.
Don’t discount the hurt that she feels. Marriage may be great, but that doesn’t mean that there can’t be religious and life fulfillment without it, and through the hyperfocus on marriage (I’m not talking about dating, I’m talking about the feeling that made her cry on her 25th birthday- the focus, perhaps, on marrying YOUNG), it’s really hard for the average slightly-older single to really get a hold of that fulfillment.
It should be everyone’s aim to live each stage of life to its fullest until the next one comes. The timespan from seminary to marriage should not just be seen as a waiting room. (One thing that horrified me, for example, was a recent answer in the Yated Shidduch Forum where the panelists wrote that a person should cancel [or not even schedule] vacations if they come into conflict with shidduchim. Life is not only for the married.)