Today, I was seriously contemplating the fact that this four years in front of me is the ideal time to find the man I will spend the rest of my life with. Everyone I talk to stresses the idea that marriage or the hope for marriage must begin within one's four years of college. I quite literally found myself stressing about how, if I fail to meet someone during these years who is willing to put up with me for a lifetime, I could have just missed my chance. However, I have never been so wrong.
The move of our generation seems to push the idea of getting married, engaged, or promised during college years. Though this is likely for many, and very sweet, it is not one of the prerequisites to succeeding for the rest of your life. There are plenty of places to meet significant others in this world, and college just happens to be one of them.
I feel the stress of this idea because a lot of my friends are getting engaged, discussing marriage with their significant others (whom they have been with for a very long while, props to y'all), and it overall just kind of makes me... Sad. Nervous. All of the above. I start to feel down on myself because, I want to be an independent woman for as long as I live, but I also want someone to lean on and learn from (like most people do) in the future. I am, by no means, ready for that commitment in my life right now, as many of us aren't, and that is totally fine.
What I am really trying to say here is prioritize yourself- your happiness, your wants, your needs, interests, whatever- and find happiness in the fact that you are strong and independent, and you can manage all on your own. We are too young to be hesitating at the idea of standing on our own, and we need to learn to accept that a relationship does not define success.
Overall, find a group of friends (girls or guys or both), and rely on them for support when you need it, and the right guy will stumble into your life whenever the universe is ready. But, in the meantime, just know that being on your own does not devalue you, or make you seem weak, but ultimately proves that you are an individual who can get work done when needed and be strong on her own. Just because your life in this current moment does not quite reach the said status quo, you are not abnormal by any means. Remember that everything happens with time, and you have plenty of it. So, be young, embrace the future, and be happy.
Ladies, it is time to pull on those big girl boots, and embrace the independence.
