The pressure to be in a relationship assaults us from all fronts in today's world. With social media connecting everyone all the time, everywhere you turn you will find someone who is putting their #relationshipgoals on display. Add that to the already established societal norm of getting married in your twenties, and it's enough to make anxiety over singleness overwhelming.

I see this often in my own life, and in the lives of my single friends. People are generally sympathetic when they find out that I'm not dating anyone. It seems like an accepted truth that singleness, especially for a woman, is something to be lamented, but I've never viewed it that way. I like being single. I want to wait for a fulfilling relationship rather than waste my time on people that I know won't last. I'm picky, and I don't care if you think that's a problem. Not only that, but I'm invested in focusing on my education and career. I prioritize those aspects of my life above almost everything else right now, and I find it strange that so many people believe that they're a better judge of what's going on in my life than I am.

There are so many standards we are expected to meet in terms of romantic relationships and their relation to doing well in life. We should all date a nice person in high school, go to college, meet "the one," and get married after graduation. Naturally, one then has kids, buys a house, and acquires the all-important white picket fence. It doesn't happen that way for most people anymore, and it's ridiculous to assume that it should. If it did for you, then great, but it's important that you know that your path to happiness in life isn't the only path.

This is not to say that people who date often or who want to get married young are making the wrong choice. There are absolutely aspects of a healthy relationship that are goal worthy. What I am saying is that is wrong to belittle someone who sets up different goals for their life. What you do with your love life should be up to you. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. If your career is more important to you than marriage, that's okay. If what you want is to get married and have kids right away, that's okay too. If you want to date everyone you meet, guess what, that's okay as well. Your goals don't have to align with what you see on social media or what society mandates that you do. You get to define success and happiness, and what role relationships are going to play in that path to success, in your own terms.