My parents were high school classmates before they got back together in college and they eventually got married at the age of 25.

Now that I am creeping up on that age and my sister is getting married at 24, I've started to think about relationships and more specifically my lack of a romantic relationship. Sometimes it feels like having a romantic relationship and getting married at the "correct" age is the end all be all of life. I'm not saying that having a relationship at a young age is wrong, but sometimes it just seems like it's what is expected of a young person in their 20's.

However, despite this expectation of having a relationship and getting married, I am not ready to have a relationship or to give somebody a part of me.

There's so much more I have to learn about myself and what I want to do with my life. Plus, I need to be in a state of stability and have more of a sense of who I am as a person and what I want from life in order to be in a relationship. Without knowing those basic things, I don't think that I would be able to properly give someone the love or support that they need.

Besides, I'm not really that interested in a relationship since I still have about a year and a half of college left and I'm just not looking for one at the current moment.

What brought this article up is a discussion that my friends and I were having while we were out and talking about everything that we could think of. Relationships became the topic of conversation at one point and they were talking about how they weren't expecting to still be single at this stage in their life.

As I began to think more and more about the subject, I realized that not everyone needs a relationship to feel satisfied and that it's OK to be single especially at such pivotal points in their lives. So what I want to say to my friends, if you are reading this, is that it's OK to be single and a relationship will come around when you least expect it.

Some people are perfectly happy with their relationships and are better because of them and that's perfectly fine. But it's also fine to stay single and figure out your life before you give half of it to someone else.

People choose to stay single for a number of reasons including a need to focus on school or work, finding themselves among the chaos of the world and a want to enjoy life before committing to something that drastic. Those reasons are perfectly valid for staying single and there's no shame in wanting to stay single because of it.

My reasons for staying single are that I don't want one, I need to focus on school and I need to know what I am doing with my life and focus on myself before I shift my focus to someone else. Some people may see these reasons as selfish, but I think that they are perfectly valid and I find no need to be ashamed of my status as a single Pringle.

I need to take pride in being single and focus on my own life before I focus on someone else's because there's no need to be ashamed or afraid. Sure people around me may say that I desperately need a relationship, but they don't know what I've been through to get to this point. So why should I care what they think about my single status?

So, yes, as of about a week ago when I am writing this, I am 21 and still single but that's OK.