We all saw How To Be Single last year, right? Please tell me I’m not the only one who walked out of the movie theatre ready to break up with my boyfriend and hike the Grand Canyon on New Years. Okay, so I wasn’t actually going to break up with anyone, but as the perpetually single girl I felt empowered to start spreading the word of singlehood to all my girlfriends that would listen.
Your twenties are supposed to be a time of self-exploration. I’m not saying an SO will impede on this, but it’s really hard to rediscover yourself when your committed relationship is rooted on who you were two years ago. You need space to grow and challenge yourself and, unfortunately, an SO might hold you back.
Consider this: you’re presented with some crazy opportunity, like maybe you could go on an exchange in Australia or do a killer internship in NYC, but you’re in a super serious relationship back home and you don’t think you could last the long distance so you turn down the offer. Your twenties are when everything gets uprooted, you go to university, then (hopefully) score your dream job and your life is all over the place. Trying to juggle your own dreams and your SO’s makes everything more complicated than it should be.
At this age, you should be living your life for you. Pursuing your own dreams and making your own plans, rediscovering who you are and redefining who you want to be. Take it from me: a few years of the single life can really pay off. As cheesy as it sounds, being alone forces you to learn how to love yourself. You become independent in a way that you never would have been if you were in a relationship.
I used to be the most insecure girl on the planet; I was super shy and uncomfortable with myself. Spending my first few years of university single helped me grow into the woman I am now. I can honestly say that I am more confident and sure of myself than I have ever been and I owe all of it to these past few years.
We all need to learn how to be alone at some point in our lives… why not now?