College is a time to focus on yourself, grow, and figure out who you are without your parents' rules, school authority figures, etc. So many people compromise themselves when they get into a relationship by fitting the mold of what they believe that person wants them to be.

Your first couple years of college should be spent with friends, all of you discovering who you are free from rules (but within the law).

So many girls nowadays go to college looking for a boyfriend. Most often they are left disappointed as many college boys, especially freshmen boys, are absolutely not looking for a relationship. The only thing they are looking for is a good time. And can you blame them? Like us girls, they are experiencing this new freedom. Why limit that newfound freedom within the first year of gaining it by getting into a relationship?

While the idea of a relationship can sometimes seem comforting, they often times take away from other areas of your life that should take priority during your first years of college, such as paying attention to your grades and making friends. When getting romantically involved with another person, many people feel the need to put their partner above everything else, such as the aforementioned academics and friends.

You don't want to have to worry about what someone else is doing on the weekends when you are out trying to have a good time. You don't want to be that person always on your phone letting your significant other know where you are and who you are with.

I had a friend who came to college with a boyfriend. She spent the entire first semester keeping to herself at parties and not making any other guy friends as she was always on her phone talking to her boyfriend. Come the second semester, she had broken up with this guy and realized that the people we had been hanging out with all first semester did not even know her name. She could finally see how much that relationship had held her back.

Picture this: a night where you get ready to go out with your best friends, you are all single, you go out, nobody is on their phone unless taking a picture to document this amazing night, you find cute guys to talk to (or you just have a total GNO and forget about guys all together for the night,) there's no drama, and the night ends with all of you together, preferably eating a pizza, and nobody is upset or crying. What about that doesn't sound absolutely perfect?

In addition to nights out on the town, being in a relationship is a huge time commitment. If you're anything like me, you enjoy your alone time. When in a relationship, you sometimes feel obligated to spend the little bit of free-time you squeeze into your busy schedule with your partner. This can make some people (me) feel even more stressed because now they have one more thing/person to worry about.

Beyond the time commitment and drama being in a relationship can bring, they also have the potential of ending in a heartbreak. The hookup culture we are living in right now is not an environment conducive to a healthy relationship. We so often hear of relationships ending because one partner cheated on the other. Given that the hookup culture is even more prevalent among college students, why would you willingly put yourself in a situation to get hurt? Yes, there are some relationships that are healthy and guys that are truly loyal and all about their girl, but that is rare in today's society.

For me, I am choosing to focus on friendships, fun, and school. Maybe I'll be more open to a relationship in the future, but that is a while down the road. I think the best move is to wait until our generation grows out of the hookup phase and matures a little bit in that area to even think about getting into a relationship.