Coming from the lifelong “single friend,” the first person to rag on friends for being too lovey dovey and an avid hater of Valentine’s Day, it takes a lot for me to admit this. I, Hannah McCulley, am now the tied down, lame, boyfriend-obsessed, cliché girl, right? Wrong.
Finding this other human being who will eat Krystal's with me at 3 a.m. on a Friday night or having a permanent doubles partner does not make me lame, tied down, or any of the above.
As a senior, I have gone through the past three years of college believing that there is always something (or someone) better out there waiting. Although it does pay off to wait it out or always want the best for yourself, sometimes you have to accept that maybe you already have it. Yes, being single has had its fun, crazy nights, but I also remember many lonely, boring Sunday afternoons.
While I am not telling every single one of you to run off and kiss the next male you see, I am saying your senior year is not ruined because you get to hang out and kiss someone you really like. Think of all the random date situations you can awkwardly avoid come date party season and the lazy nights you get to have with someone else whose guilty pleasure is the same as yours (ex. One Tree Hill).
Because our grandparents and parents mostly all tied the knot before they were even legal to drink, kids these days are freaked out by the thought of being stuck to one person for their entire life, hence all the random, drunken hookups post 4 a.m. Tin Roof. And while, yes, you most likely won’t marry the first person you date in college, there is a very good possibility that you will meet someone that you like enough to maybe stay with, well, forever.
In Meg Jay’s The Defining Decade, a book that every college student should read, she talks about how this group of twentysomethings spend more time being single than any generation in history. Because millennials are so career-oriented and focused on planning that aspect of their lives, they forget about another important part—relationships. She says, “Doing something later is not necessarily the same as doing something better. More and more twentysomethings are careful not to rush into marriage at a young age, yet many do not know what else to consider.”
Moral of my story is to all my single ladies, keep on keepin’ on, but to all the lovebirds, don’t let it hold you back this year. Make the most of your GNO’s. Bring the bf out on the dance floor with you or better yet, go out with your girlfriends and know that a DD is only one call away when you’ve had one too many cranberry vodkas.
