The thought occurred to me today that in today’s society, many “older” people are advising the younger generation to get themselves together before they seek to find a potential mate. It’s a known fact that people are getting married at older ages. Some of this has been blamed on the economy and the fact that maturity these days seems to be a process that is severely delayed in young adults. But at what point has one “gotten themselves together” to the point that they are deemed “ready” for a relationship? Is there some kind of checklist that requires you to have a list a qualities? So many people claim that they are staying single because they want to work on themselves but in many ways that seems like BS to me. While I do think that there should be a period of time when you can be OK being alone, I think that there are things that you get from a relationship that you won’t get by being alone. Our close relationships are such an indication of who we are and we learn a wealth of information about ourselves from our close relationships. So next time you tell yourself that you’re single because you want to get your stuff together or you want to get more settled in your career/job/school/fill in the blank, ask yourself if it’s just plain fear that’s holding you back.