It’s almost 2016, and by now we know that it’s totally fine to be single. It’s totally fine to enjoy it, in fact. But sometimes, you get that lonely feeling and start to yearn for someone to share your life with. That little voice in your head that says you’ve never going to meet anyone you click with starts getting super loud and hard to ignore. There are definitely parts of being single that you won’t mind giving up once you’re in a committed relationship. If you’ve been single for a while, you’ll probably be glad when the following no longer apply:
- When your friends are busy so you have nothing to do. As much as we adore our BFFs, we can’t hang out with them every night. We all have our own lives and plans. When you’re single, you end up spending a lot of evenings alone on your couch. No matter how much you try to be social, sometimes there’s literally no one to go out with. Your friends are busy with their boyfriends or going on (hopefully good) first dates or working late. If you had a BF of your own, you would always have someone to hang out with.
- Being super bored at a party. Parties are never as much fun as we think they’re going to be. When you’re single and don’t know anyone at the party, good luck getting anyone to talk to you for more than five minutes. If you had a significant other to bring, you’d have a much better time. Is that too much to ask
- Your eternal frustrations with the dating world. You’re on all the dating apps and websites. You’ve asked everyone you know if they could set you up. You’ve tried speed dating and even just smiling at strangers on the subway (but that ends up making you look pretty creepy). You’re pretty frustrated with this whole dating thing and you can’t wait to finally fall in love again so you don’t have to sit through yet another awful first date. You’re so excited for that moment you might even throw a party (and make sure people actually talk during it).
- Wondering when you’ll finally meet your person. You know you’ll eventually meet him but you can’t help but wonder why it seems to be taking forever and ever. Sure, having this time to focus on yourself will make you an awesome girlfriend, but you’re still tired of playing the waiting game.
- The feeling that your life hasn’t begun yet. Of course this isn’t true. You’re a happy person who is actually living her life and making the most of every day. Basically, you do all the things that greeting cards tell you to. But you still feel that you want someone to love so your story can finally be complete. This can feel pretty crappy on the nights when you experience truly awful first dates, but it’s also your #1 motivation to keep putting yourself out there.
- Hating yourself for your Facebook jealousy. You know the type: your old college classmate posts some cheesy engagement photos in a field of flowers, that friend-of-a-friend is suddenly sporting a ring on that finger, everyone you know seems to be officially In A Relationship. You can try to be cool but you can’t help but feel bad about yourself after being subjected to all this social media bragging.
- Letting go of your bad date story collection. You could write a 500-page novel about your dating experiences by now. You’ve reached the point where swapping tales with your best friends isn’t even fun anymore. You just want to move on and experience real love, not false connections.
- The birthday and holiday loneliness. Ugh. This is the worst. Sure, you get twinges of loneliness at random points when you’re living the single life, but it seems more acute and obvious when you’re blowing out anything birthday cake candle and there’s no one standing beside you. And of course Christmas makes you want a boyfriend (probably thanks to all those so-bad-they’re-good TV movies). You can’t wait until you can share these moments and milestones with someone that you care about.
- The pressure to be happy all the time. Since being single is no big deal these days and since we’ve all established that it takes longer to find lasting love, there’s a lot of societal pressure to be 100 percent cool with your single situation. This is a good thing, kind of. Ultimately, it can start to grate at you because you want it to be okay to admit that you want love.
- That eternal decision-making struggle. Should you buy a condo or stay in your tiny apartment until you can move in with someone? Do you move for a grad program you always dreamed of or stay home hoping to find your guy? We make so many choices on a regular basis and when you’re single, it’s even harder. You’re still going to do what’s right for you, of course, but you also want to leave yourself open in case you meet the love of your life tomorrow. Stranger things have happened, right?
