We see it everyday of our lives. Everything revolves around being young and in love. Our favorite shows, movies, and ksongs always seem to involve a romantic interest. It's no wonder the moment we graduate highschool, the first thing on our mind is "who am I going to marry?" As women, we can deny this as much as we want. I say it all the time myself. "I'm focusing on my career" or "I'm focusing on me" and as true as that might be, you are lying if you don't admit that every time you see that engagement anouncement on your Facebook news feed, you open up your tinder profile and start swiping away. It's hard not to feel like you're failing when everyone around you seems to have that special someone and you spend your Saturday nights writing a blog. But being single and staying single is ok and here's why:

You get to figure out you.

I'm 26 years old. I live by myself with my dog. I have a career that i'm in love with. I make good money for someone that doesn't have a college degree and I've been told that i'm as cute as a button and until recently, I've never been happy with my life. I judged my life based on the fact of someone else wanting me. It wasn't until recently that I decided that i'm 100% happy with being single. I realized that the most important relationship I have right now is with myself. I know how to make myself happy. It's small things that i've realized make me happy. I LOVE coming home after a long Monday, pouring myself some wine, and cook myself an amazing meal. That's one of my simple pleasures I look forward too. I LOVE waking up at 5 am and starting my day with a workout and reading my latest book. It's very simple things that I know make me happy. I have amazing friends that make my world go round.

Typically when I would date a guy and we would inevitably break up, I would LOSE IT. Like LOSE IT. I honestly would get so depressed, I couldn't even bring myself to get out of bed soemtimes. It's like I didn't know who I was. I would get so fixated on why didn't this person want me. What was wrong with me? It made me hate myself because I didn't know myself or love myself enough to think that maybe this guy had the issue and not me. It wasn't until one night, I was crying in a bar bathroom and my friend grabbed me by the shoulders and said "GET A GRIP" and I realized I needed to change. Why coudn't I just be happy with myself? So I started a relationship with myself. I started figuring out what makes me happy, I started focusing on my relationships with my friends and just planning out how I wanted my life to look without a significant other. The perk to this:

I'm learning my identity by myself.

I'm shaping and molding myself on how I want to look and how I want to be. I'm not shaping myself into being what someone wants to be. I know who I am without a significant other. Sometimes when we date, we lose ourselves. The relationship ends and we don't know who we are without that person or how to be happy because our identity was tied to that person and our happiness was tied to that person. I'm not as invested in other people. I know that by myself, I'm happy.

They will love you because they know the same you that you know.

That's a mouthful, but think about it. If you know yourself and your happiness, you will eventually have a stronger relationship because they will know and love your true identity also. You won't be something you're not. They're either going to love you or hate you and who cares if they hate you? In the words of Ariana Grande "Thank you, next". The best thing you can do for your future significant other, is to present them with someone you love also. So stay single. Love on yourself. Go get that career. Sit down and map out exactly who you want to be and focus on YOU. And then when the time comes, staying single will be worth it.