Another Valentine’s Day has come and gone and just like last year, I spent it without a significant other. Sure, I retweeted a couple funny tweets about how all I’m really looking for in a man is someone to share a pizza with or how I am alone for yet another year. For the most part, I was totally okay with spending the day with my family instead of a guy.
I will admit that I was a little bitter when my then 15-year-old sister got her first boyfriend and there I was, 17-years-old with no prospects. And I will also admit that three years later, when my other sister got her first boyfriend at 14-years-old, I still felt a little incompetent.
Despite the fact that I have never had a boyfriend, I don’t feel like I’ve missed out on anything. Sure, I didn’t have a date to the prom, but my best friend and I danced the night away together, and I wouldn’t trade that for any man.
Being single for the entirety of my life has allowed me to develop the healthiest relationship possible with the most important person in my life; myself. My journey to self-love, self-acceptance, and self-respect has not been a smooth one. Through battles with mental illness and self-esteem to the lessons I learned through studying abroad and living on my own, I feel like I finally know myself. A year ago, I could not have said that with the same honesty.
Every day, I see people all around me who are in love and share their lives with another person. Sometimes I do get a little envious, but for the most part, I am totally okay with living the single life right now. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and there’s a reason that I don’t have a boyfriend right now. While I am unsure of that reason, I am okay with it because I have never felt happier or more confident or more accomplished in my life. I don’t think I would have achieved the same level of fulfillment had I been sharing my life with someone else.
I am young. I am just a few weeks away from being 21. I have plenty of time to share my life with another person. And while there are days when I do wish I had someone (Lord knows it would make finding a date to formal much, much easier) right now is the time for me to explore this crazy world and find my place in it, and I don’t necessarily need a man by my side to do it.
