Let’s pause for a brief moment and picture this scenario: You’re at a family party and you’re sitting on a chair in the backyard listening to music and eating great food. Your grandma walks up to you, holds your face and says, “So did you find anyone yet?” You respond with “no.” Maybe 20 minutes pass by and your aunt pulls up a chair next to you and asks, “Do you have a boyfriend yet? How are the boys in your life?” Again, you respond with “no, there’s nobody in my life right now.” As you can imagine, this situation gets progressively worse the older I get, being that I’m 21 and have never had a boyfriend. This isn’t to say I’ve never wanted one before or that I’ve never “liked” anyone, but the truth is, I’m not necessarily “looking,” either.

Without a doubt, I look forward to experiencing a relationship with somebody I could potentially fall in love with and get married to. But in all honesty, I have way too much going on in my life right now to want to be settled. I’m a full-time college student still trying to figure out where I’m going and what I’m doing once I graduate and have that degree in my hands. I have a part-time job where I go from being a student to nurse, janitor, secretary, friend, and mother-figure to 12 four-year-olds. I’m involved in numerous organizations whether it is in school or out of school. I just don’t have the time to also become someone’s “person.” I don’t have time to talk to them all the time or hang out with them every night. I don’t have time to go on a date or think about them throughout the day because I always have too many other things running through my mind. I physically and emotionally can’t provide them with the love and attention they’ll deserve.

Of course, the overwhelming questions of my nonexistent love life tend to bug me at times. I’ve thought, you know, maybe something’s wrong with me. Maybe I’m too fat or too short? Maybe I’m not pretty enough? Maybe my personality sucks? But those endless questions of trying to figure myself out are useless because there is nothing wrong with me at all. I just choose not to be in a relationship and that is why I am single. I choose to put my education first, (and my family and friends, of course), my job and the organizations I’m a part of second, and a relationship last. I want to have fun and go out with my friends, meet new people, and experience crazy things. Right now, I can wait to fall in love and I can wait to go on adventures with a person I’d be able to call my best friend and other half. I don’t need a person to complete me. I don’t need a person to fill an empty void I might have every once in a blue moon. I need to figure myself out and love myself wholeheartedly first before I can ever love someone just as much. So yeah, I’m single. And no, I’m not sad about it.