Netflix and live your own damn life because independence is good. Independence might mean you are single, or maybe it means you run a different life than your significant other, but the ideas that two halves make a whole have corrupted our ideas of the value of love. Since when was being independent looked at in a bad light? Now being independent means you are blocked off from others or something must be wrong with you so you are deemed “undateable.” If you can’t stand alone, what makes you think you can support someone else? I am a girl who has her own schedule, I have a million responsibilities and my job has always been my first priority. I have goals and commitments. I do not have time to text all day or answer your facetime because you wanted to say hi. That does not mean I am not interested, it just means I will never rely on you to keep my world spinning. Since when was having my own life and obligations deemed as intimidating though and why do we feel the need to place the idea that being vulnerable requires dependency? A relationship takes work and effort; it does not take your life and your freedom. Your independence is a gift, it's where you get to find your desires. It's where you get to grow and find your own support before you understand what others can give you. Why have we, as a society, placed expectations on relationships that in order for anything to work we have to stop what we are doing and morph with the other individual to become one. How is that even fun? I hardly can share my blankets more or less my bed, and if you think I am going to share my food with you then keep dreaming! That doesn’t mean I am not ready to care for someone, though. That doesn’t deem me as unavailable or difficult. If anything, being able to say that I have my own life and either you work with it or leave makes me more ready for a commitment than anything. Independence is a gift. It’s the greatest thing you can give yourself and others. Stay busy, don’t move your schedule around for someone else; if they’re actually worth your time then they will wait until you have time. Love what you love, keep doing you, boo! If someone is intimidated by the fact that you don’t need them, that you don’t need to call them every night to ask them about their day, then please dodge that bullet and drop it like it's hot. Being a stage-five clinger isn’t cute. I don’t babysit for free and I don’t have the time even if your mom did pay me. Being independent is sexy, it shows you can handle your own and have ambition with goals. Who doesn’t want that person?