My longest and only relationship lasted eight months. We held hands, wrote notes, and went laser-tagging.

Wow, seventh grade was a whirlwind.

Although not a love guru, I and the roughly 73 friends who I have counseled about their love lives will admit that I give damn good advice.

And yes, I have no idea why people come to the one person in the world who as my friends put it "hates love."

Maybe it's because I have the wise face of an elderly hermit.

Maybe I'm just approachable.

Anyways, here's a letter to all those people unsure about being alone.

--

To the lovely person reading this,

This is going to be scary as hell.

I think you say you want to be single, but you're afraid to be. And I get that. Going from having a person to depend on to being alone must be insane. I cannot fathom what that is like.

But, there is a whole world for you and it's like you're playing safe.

You are in your twenties and the point of ending that relationship was to be about yourself for a change. You need to be selfish, you need to love yourself, and you need to be alone for goodness sake.

Be alone.

It's so important.

You need to live on your own terms and stop making excuses.

Be brilliant, be bold.

Make something out of your life. Your twenties are so important because you're finally old, but you're still so young.

Be selfish with your time--travel, explore, be crazy, be silly, be ridiculous.

Make mistakes.

You need to be single, love.

Please.

I know for a fact you will regret not taking this time right now to explore life.

Take so many pictures. Drink lots of cheap beer. Make weekly brunch plans.

Adopt a dog. Buy a turtle. Adopt another dog. Adopt so many dogs.

For once in your life, it is about you and only you.

Be single. Be alone.

And celebrate yourself.

Because don't you know?

You're pretty damn awesome.