Dear Ladies,

If you’re a single girl in college, or recently graduated for that matter, then you’re probably starting to hate any holiday season- if only because you know it means more pictures and announcements of engagements plastered all over Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. It seems like one by one, all of your friends are getting engaged and planning their weddings while you can barely manage to get a date to formal. You feel guilty for being jealous because you’re happy for them, you really are, but deep down you know you wish it was you. You with the engagement ring on your finger, you with the man you’re going to spend the rest of your life with, and you with the rest of your life neatly lined up in front of you.

We all feel the rush to “get a ring by spring” because we feel like if we don’t then we’re just hopeless and we’re going to wind up old and alone, except for our 58 cats. Well, you know what? That is just not true. So what if you don’t find your soulmate in college? The world is much bigger than the thousands of frat boys at your school. Maybe the man of your dreams is taking a year abroad. Maybe he already has a job and is financially stable. The point is, you don’t know where your perfect man is waiting for you and chances are, you won’t find him before you finish college. And that’s okay.

We’re all so conditioned now to think that we need a ring before we graduate, but college isn’t the only place to meet someone. Now, realizing this and believing it are two very different things. It’s easy to put on a brave face and boldly proclaim that you are a "strong independent woman who don’t need no man,” while your roommate goes on the 3^rd date with the cutie you had your eye on for months, when in reality, you’re just thinking about how much you want a boyfriend. Everyone tells you that you need to be a strong person on your own, and that’s true to an extent. But no one ever tells you that it’s okay to want a boyfriend. Well, it is.

I’m not saying you should mope around whenever you’re single and dateless, but you don’t have to pretend you’re single because you want to be if you’re not. The right one is worth waiting for, and he’s out there somewhere, so don’t worry too much if you just haven’t met him yet. Keep waiting on your Prince Charming. After all, the poor idiot might be stuck in a tree or something.