Okay single ladies, let’s face it. I’m sure many of us have had our moments—we’ve watched The Notebook while sobbing into our pint of Ben & Jerry’s after our ex’s broke up with us, (BIG mistake btw), complaining to our friends about how and why we’re still single, enviously eyeing cute couples everywhere we go, and being crushed when the new, potential bae is in fact not interested in us. However, what I have come to realize is just how unnecessary all of this moping, complaining, and thinking is, and how it’s potentially doing more harm than good. Instead of constantly thinking about when our next relationship will be, we need to focus on and cherish every moment of our time being single—and here’s why.
- We Have Our Whole Lives to Be in a Relationship
Seriously, though. As much as we want to be in a committed relationship, we have our whole lives to be committed. Why not enjoy our years that we’re single as much as we can? We may not get to do cute, couple-y things that all of our friends are posting on Instagram about, but so what? We can still do those activities—with friends, family, and even just ourselves. Plus, we have the rest of our lives to do fun activities with our significant other. Being single is freeing, and we should cherish our freedom as much as we can.
- Realizations About Past Relationships
Cherishing our time being single is also beneficial because it makes us reflect on why our past relationships didn’t work out. Let’s be real—if our relationships ended, as heartbreaking as it may be, they probably weren’t meant to be in the first place. I can proudly say I have grown so much in the past several months since my ex and I broke up, and I have noticed things I didn’t like about our relationship and what I look for in the next one. Being single can help us learn a lot about our past relationships and make us reflect on the parts of them that weren’t as fun and exciting.
- We Have Time to Focus on OURSELVES
The single life is also very valuable because we have a lot of time to focus on ourselves and what we want in life. Being in a relationship can often make us lose our sense of who we are—because we spend so much time with our significant other, sometimes we forget to make time for ourselves. Being single gives us a much better grasp on who we are and what we want, but perhaps more importantly, it challenges us to be happy and enjoy being by ourselves. We cannot take our significant others for granted and depend on being in a relationship forever, so being single teaches us that we are enough, we are worthy, and that the right person will come along at the right time.
So, instead of thinking “#relationshipgoals” as we see other couples pass by, maybe our goal should be to cherish and enjoy our time spent with ourselves—in my opinion, the best relationship one can ever have.