Relationships! They are complicated but somehow everyone wants to be in one. When you’re the only single one in a group of friends, you feel like an outcast. We start to wonder what is wrong with us because it almost feels like everyone is in a relationship. I’ve been in that exact position, I witnessed everyone around me find their other half while I sat in my room eating chips and watching netflix.
This was especially the case at the beginning of my first year of college. It felt like everyone had a partner which led me to search for prince charming in a swamp full of frogs. However, I realized that I wasn’t ready for that commitment. I was in a brand new environment away from my parents and my friends. It was first time being on my own which made it hard to adjust. Therefore, how did I believe that I can get to know someone when I hardly knew myself.
In the first year of college everyone is finding out what they want in life and who they want to be. It’s completely fine to take the journey alone and make it beautiful and memorable. Sometimes these isolated hours are necessary because it leaves us alone with our biggest supporter, enemy, and companion. Don’t get me wrong these encounters with ourselves are terrifying because loneliness leads us to discover things that we may not already know about ourselves. But you see, we should be able to know ourselves completely and devote time to ourselves before we can do it for anyone else.
I know it may be difficult to not want another hand to hold, especially in a world where rom-coms exist. I understand that being the third wheel is not always fun. However, being independent is a beautiful thing that we should enjoy and we should commit time to better selves as people. In the end there is nothing wrong with us just because we are single. We are probably single because we need to know ourselves better and grow.