When you're in your 20s, it seems like new relationships are popping up all around you like groundhogs, or better yet, your friends are starting to get engaged. If you're that one single person in a sea of little guppies happily in love, it's more than likely that as happy as you are for these people, you'd like to hit those relationships back into the ground like Whack-a-Mole. But, that would be the naïve thing to do, now wouldn't it? There is such a negative connotation around being single, that you have to be in a relationship and you have to be in love and you have to go on dates and you have to make sacrifices and compromises. It's not "okay" to be single, and as your old Aunt Betty always says to you at your Christmas Eve dinner, "When are you going to find yourself a handsome, rich man?"
Well, Aunt Betty, maybe I don't want a handsome, rich man right now. You know what, as a matter of fact, I actually don't need a handsome, rich man, ever. When I choose to be in a relationship, it will not be because he is handsome or rich, but for who he is on the inside, but that's beside the fact. The point is, there's so much societal and familial stress put on being in a committed relationship with someone, when little do these people know how much you can truly learn about yourself while you're single.
Since I've begun my adventures through Singleville, I've found the most profound happiness I have ever known. Want to know why? Being single has allowed me the time and space to learn how to love myself. I don't have anyone to depend on to tell me that I look beautiful or that I'm actually not fat or that my pimple really doesn't look that bad. I don't have anyone to pride me on my accomplishments or pick me up from my failures 24/7. All I have is me, myself and I. I've had to depend on myself to look in the mirror and love who I see. I've had to depend on myself to push myself to work harder towards my goals and lift myself up after every single time I fall down. Maybe that sounds horrible to you, but you see, you can't fully love someone else until you are completely and wholeheartedly in love with yourself.
In Singleville, I'm on my own time. I can sit down and read the ten books I've been putting off in a matter of a week if that's what I really want to do. I can research a cool science project I've been dying to try or buy brand spankin' new camera equipment or maybe even get that furry little friend I've wanted for so long. I have all the time in the world, and that time is all my own. I can do what I want, when I want, without having to worry about someone else's agenda.
Now, there's absolutely nothing wrong with being in a happy, healthy, loving relationship with someone else. Coming from someone who has been in one, I can say that it was one of the most influential experiences of my life. I learned so, so much from it, but I didn't learn how to love myself and be my own person, and that's what being single has taught me. So embrace your time being single, don't knock the giddy lovers back in to the ground, but be a giddy lover yourself, with yourself.
