By the time most people enter college, they have dated at least a couple of individuals and are pretty sure what they want from their significant other. At this age, it’s common to see Facebook filled with engagement posts, pregnancy announcements, and people getting ready to live their “happily ever after.” Now to say I’m looking for my prince charming is far, far, far from the truth.
In fact, I’ve only had one relationship in my entire life that lasted almost five years. After that relationship I learned how dependent and needy I embarrassingly was on this one person. It took me quite some time after the break up to learn how to be my own person again, but pretty soon, I found new passions, new hobbies, new reasons to smile, and I fell in love with my life again. For the first time, in a very long time, I learned to be my own person.
While at college, I’ve noticed that people are constantly asking, “so where’s the boyfriend?” My parents especially, being more traditional than most, are constantly bugging me about my love interests and potential boyfriends. Even my friends ask me about my bizarre single lifestyle. Aside from the unintentional attempt to make me feel bad about my relationship status, nothing is more frustrating than having all of my accomplishments, dedication to my clubs and hard work towards being the best person I can be, become irrelevant due to the fact that I don’t have a significant other.
More importantly, I hate people assuming I’m a grumpy, anti-love person because I am single. It’s not that I don’t like relationships or have this ridiculous grudge against men, I am just okay with being single.
For whatever reason, people love to associate a high quality of life and happiness with having a relationship. As if somehow having a relationship will make all of our problems go away. I cannot even keep track of how often I see a post on Facebook of people complaining about being single, making it seem like it’s the worst thing in the entire world to having the opportunity to do whatever you want.
The way I see it, the entire purpose of early adulthood is to better yourself, for YOU. Whether it’s through college, work or whatever else your heart desires, this is the time for people to discover who they are, what they want for themselves and to be ready before they fully commit to someone else. I am a firm believer in loving and truly knowing yourself before you can let someone else wholeheartedly love you.
If you're already at that point, good for you. I’m happy that you’re happy with your boo, but don't make the others feel guilty for not prioritizing their love life over their other life interests. To my single, don't mope, in fact, own that freedom. Fall in love with your own life and wear that single title loud and proud.
Whether you're in a relationship or not, life is as only as good as you make it.
