I feel that society puts a lot of pressure on us to be in a relationship. We are taught from childhood that the ultimate goal in life is to get a job, get married and raise a family. A lot of my friends are following this trend, and are in serious relationships, some are married, and some even are starting a family.

Those who are not in serious relationships are at least looking for one. They have every intention to find the "right" person and finally begin to settle. I, on the other hand, have no interest in settling. Originally, my plan was to hopefully find the "right" person around my early twenties, get married in my mid-twenties, and begin my family in my late twenties/early thirties. Now that I am in my early twenties, I have no intention of looking for that person any time soon. A lot of times, people will tell me, "it shouldn't be hard for you to find a boyfriend!" Me being single isn't the fact that I cannot get a boyfriend, but it is a matter of my choice. That is the issue with society these days, it is often assumed that those who are single are looking for a partner. That is absolutely not the case with me. Sometimes I will look at couples and awe at how adorable they are, and sometimes I wish I was in a relationship. At the same time, every time a guy mentions the word "date" to me, I want to throw up at the idea of that. A date should be fun, but what if that leads to commitment? Commitment is what I absolutely do not want.

It may sound selfish of me, but I do not want to have to commit myself to someone. I have learned a lot about myself and life in general these past few months, and the biggest lesson I learned is that life does not work out according to your plans. I also learned that amazing things can happen spontaneously, and I do not want to have to weigh out an opportunity of a lifetime because of fear that the opportunity will ruin the relationship. I want to have the freedom to move to whenever I want after I receive my degree, and I do not want to have to compromise with my boyfriend/husband on where we both would like to live. I want to be happy, and ultimately I feel happy being single. I love the feeling of freedom and being able to make decisions based solely on my interests. We are given one life, and I do not want to look back and regret opportunities that I did not take due to a relationship standing in the way.

I understand that not everyone thinks the same way, and it is great if you feel that sharing your life with someone is the way to go. My point of this is to not judge people for being single, because it is completely okay to be single. Not all single people are miserable, and many choose to live that way. I think the ultimate point of life is to live it exactly how you want to, and to avoid society's standards. Not all minds think the same, and although some people may agree with society's standards, others may not. What is important is to be happy. As long as you are happy with your life, then you should be happy with yourself.