Being single is great. You don’t have to tell a significant other where you’re going or justify your actions to them. You don’t have to think twice about wanting to stay in on a Saturday night. In fact, if you want to stay in, you simply can. Being single means being free.
1) Having no one to watch that new romantic comedy with because your friends already saw it last week—with he-who-must-not-be-named.
[All friends you’ve ever had in life, in unison]: ‘“Busy Friday night. Hanging out with [insert significant other’s name here].”
It’s okay girl. Netflix got you.
2) Having an uneven number of guys and girls in the picture—and it’s all your fault.
3) Giving attention to a guy you normally wouldn’t even consider.
(nervous laughter) Hahahha I’m only here because all my friends have boyfriends…
4) Your friends ask you for advice and you have little to no romantic life of your own to make reference to.
5) You advise them anyway—and then they praise you for your wonderful counsel and go, “OMG, how are you even single??”
I don’t know, Jessica. I don’t know.
6) Every time you hang out with just your girls it’s declared a “girls’ night!”, even though every night is basically a girls’ night for you.
7) Your friends tell you about all the new “‘firsts’” in the relationship. And when it’s your turn, you’re just like, “…I took the wrong bus by mistake yesterday… it It was a real adventure…”
8) Saying, “I have a boyfriend,” to guys you’re not interested in and on the inside you’re like “LOL”.
We all do it. At one point, I was saying it so often I was actually starting to believe it.
9) Your friends talk about the things their boyfriends buy them and you want those things too but wonder if it would be lame to buy it for yourself.
10) You all have Pandora bracelets—theirs were presents from their boyfriends and yours was a present from you.
11) When your friends say, “Don’t worry, you you’ll find someone.”
And you’re just like, “‘Should I be worried…?”
12) But hey, at least you know what you’re doing on valentines Valentine’s Day!
Nothing!
Kimberly Johnson
Last year, I got into the show How I Met Your Mother. The show is basically a story about a guy, named Ted, who sits his kids down to tell them the “long story” of how he and their mother met. I’ve been binge-watching the past eight seasons, and I’ve totally misjudged the level of awesomeness that the cast and the writers are on. The way they tie things together throughout the seasons is mind bogglingly brilliant. I’ve realized something about Ted though. I think Ted had to go through the journey that he went through to get to a place where he was mature enough to be in the kind of relationship that he and the mother have.
I bring them up in a post like this because I’ve learned something from that show, and it’s something I was told years ago, but never really listened to. It’s this:
“Everything has a season.”
My parents used to say that to me all the time, and it’s something I seem to find true. I firmly believe that everything happens when it needs to happen, and wasting time worrying about something (or someone) not being in our lives does nothing for us but cause unnecessary stress. There is a time to be single, and there is a time to be in a relationship, and while neither option is entirely perfect, both are important parts of our lives that co-exist, on some level, for some reason.
I am so sick and tired of seeing people feel bad about their singleness (this goes for me too). I can’t count the number of times when I’ve had the following conversation,
“Are you single?”
*Sighs and shrugs/sags shoulders*
“Yeah…”