"Why don't you have a boyfriend?"

"You're too pretty to be single."

"He's sooooo cute! You have to date him!"

These are just some of the things I hear about everyday, either from family members, friends, or just everyone in the English-speaking world apparently.

I am single. By choice? One hundred and ten percent, yes, it is by choice.

Now, why would a girl want to be single and avoid relationships? Well, for me, it's because I simply do not want a boyfriend right now. I don't want to be tied down. I don't need the drama. I like my own time and choosing how to spend it on my own terms everyday. Everyday is a new adventure. I can talk to whomever I'd like without worrying about another person's feelings. I can spend my time with whomever, without a care in the world. I can do whatever I want.

"That sounds so selfish."

"Don't close yourself off to love and the potential of relationships."

Maybe I am being selfish. But why shouldn't I be? I'm only 19! I have my whole life ahead of me to fall in love, get married, and the whole spending your life with your soulmate thing.

Right now, I am 19, in college, and it is the absolute best time to be selfish. It's the perfect time to focus on myself and my future. What is so wrong with not wanting a relationship to distract me from that plan for myself?

Too many people in this society, women especially, put so much emphasis on having a relationship in their life that they lose who they are, or what they want. Maybe it was God's plan for one woman to fall in love with her soulmate at 21 and get married, but for me, I have a feeling that I'm meant to wait. And I'm going to tell you why.

I am so driven towards my dreams that I know right now, I am not in the place where I can fully give my heart or my time to a person. I have realized that I am bored by the guys who surround me, romantically speaking. Now, I'm not saying you cannot be an independent woman if you have a relationship, but I am saying this.

I will settle down when I find a man who loves Jesus with his whole heart, brings out the best in me and others, cultivates my soul, and can pursue a mature relationship with God at the center.

Again, if you have already found this and are around my age, I'm so happy for you. This is wonderful news and praise God that He gave you such a great love so early on in life. But I know that for my life, God is telling me that I don't need to worry about a relationship, because if I was meant to be with someone who was in God's plan for me, I would've already fallen in love. I would've already been planning my future with this man in it. But I'm not and I haven't been.

I'm not closing myself off from love. My primary focus, however, needs to be my future. Maybe in a year or ten years, I'll find him, but right now, this is my time to grow as a person and become everything I've always wanted to be. I need to be myself first, before I can ever be someone else's wife. I'm going to work hard and build my future. But if I meet a guy who loves Jesus and has the qualities I want, will I turn him away? No, of course not. When the timing is right, I will meet this wonderful man who will be the first to bring something out of me, who won't bore me, and who can keep up with my wild spirit. I'm willing to wait for what I deserve.

If the timing or the man was right, I would know. But I don't know anyone who I could give my heart to. I haven't met someone who I've had such an incredible connection with who I could end up being in a relationship. But I do know that everyday, my faith in God gets stronger. I know that if I'm patient and keep pursing all of my passions and dreams, the right guy will come along when I am the person I am meant to be as his wife.

So, you may call me "selfish," "closed-off," "stubborn," or simply just a hater of love, but I am confident that God will give me the right man when I, myself, am ready and prepared as a woman.

And to my future husband, wherever you may be, I'm more than elated to meet you and someday build my life with you, but for now, let's focus on who we are meant to be when we finally meet in God's perfect timing.