Having a love life in university can be difficult and confusing. Some people have been in relationships for years, and others have had five significant others since you met them a month ago. Hopefully you’re happy for everyone, but you might feel a bit left out anyway. I’ve recently started to notice just how many of my friends will mention how they can’t wait to be in a relationship or how tired they are of being single. And even though I’ve been in a happy relationship for four years, I always give them one piece of advice: enjoy the single life. Why should you enjoy being single? Well…
You change a lot.
Growing up is hard; we all know that. It’s even harder when you have to worry about doing it with someone else. Finding someone who wants the same things as you, who has the same values and goals, can be pretty difficult, especially at a young age when all of those things are constantly changing. They just don’t always sync up. While sharing all the new changes with an SO can be fun and exciting, it can also create a lot of stress in your relationship.
You might move around a lot.
Between terms abroad and future job prospects, you might not necessarily know where you’re going to end up during or after university. While you probably don’t want to limit your job opportunities, it might be hard not to favour the cities that keep you closest to your SO. But if one of you wants to move across the country after graduation and the other wants to stay at home, it might be hard to make things work. Being single leaves the whole world to explore, stress-free.
You can find out what you like.
While none of this is true for everyone, you may need to explore your options before settling down, if a monogamous relationship is what you’re looking for. On that note, some exploration might help you decide that’s not what you want at all. Finding ‘the one’ a little later on in life gives you the opportunity to fall in love more than once. It allows you to make mistakes and learn from them. It will give you the chance to become exactly who you want to be, entirely on your own terms. The more you know about what you want, the better you’ll be at finding it.
You’ll have more time for yourself
Having an SO can be time consuming. Between dates and hanging out at their house, you might end up with less time for yourself. This could mean less time for new hobbies, exercising, even schoolwork. And while what someone does in their spare time is completely up to them, it’s nice to have that time for yourself instead of giving it to someone else.
You’ll have more time for family and friends
An SO can definitely count as both of these things, but it’s nice when you’re so young to build strong relationships with the people that have been around for a long time. Especially if you’ve recently moved away from home, it might be a good idea to give old family and friends more of your spare time. You’ll be thankful you put more work into those relationships when they’re still going strong in the future.
So to the girls who still haven’t had their first boyfriend, or feel like they’ll never find love- don’t rush it. It will come. And for now you’ll be able to go wherever you want to go and be whoever you want to be, entirely on your own terms.