My Pre-Valentine’s/Single Awareness Day thoughts

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It’s that time of the year again. A lot of people are nervous because they aren’t sure if they’ll be on the receiving end of a day set apart to express love. Millions of singles are now contemplating why they are single AGAIN this year. What they did wrong, and what they are going to do to avoid getting sucked into the “woe is me because I’m alone on V-day” annual party in their brain. Other take to social media sites proclaiming that they don’t care what day it is because Jesus loves them and they’re perfectly happy. Yet, no one REALLY believes them. Others are wondering if this is the year that they’ll get engaged to their significant other. He already knows EXACTLY what setting the ring should be and they went looking at rings SIX MONTHS ago. Anxious, Agitated, Upset, Frustrated, Excited, Vulnerable, Bitter, and Sadness are all some emotions that describe this love holiday for some people. The truth is that we all want to feel some type of secure connection to someone else. And most of us like the idea of being treated to something special because someone appreciates and loves you. This also happens to be the time of year when someone gets unexpectedly dumped on the most (supposedly) romantic day of the year. I want to advise all of you to not get caught up in the hype if you don’t want to. A significant other is someone who is significant to you 365 days out of the year and not just one romantic night. Valentine’s day is what you make it. Plain and simple. If you have someone, fine. If you don’t, fine. One day should not ruin your month or year. Love can occur at any time in a year and it’s important to be open to possibilities instead of stacking all your hopes and dreams on one solitary day out of 364 other ones. Decide that you’re okay–regardless of the presence or lack of the presence of a significant other on ONE SINGLE DAY. To the single people, there’s no reason, and I mean NO reason to allow V-Day to depress you for months. Learn more, grow more….after all, February 15th is just around the corner.

Relationship Status

We all have a Facebook profile. At least most of us. We use it for many purposes that vary from playing games to finding out what our friends, acquaintances, and perfect strangers are doing. Facebook has a way of making you feel connected with people that you may not see on a daily basis. It makes the world feel smaller and can be a great way to find that long lost friend who you lost contact with years ago. Facebook gives you the opportunity to share your relationship status with the world. Are you single? Is it complicated? Are you in a relationship? Or maybe a domestic partnership? It has gotten to the point that many couples can’t wait to make their relationship “Facebook Official.” After deciding to be in a relationship they race to their respective computers/phone/other device and update their relationship status and tell the world that they now in a relationship with a significant other. This post can be commented on or “liked” by their friends. But at what point is it no longer cool to update your relationships status? Should a couple who has a relationship on the rocks update their relationship status to “Complicated?” Does anyone else have a right to know that you are having problems in your marriage? While I don’t think that’s the case, I know that a lot of people believe differently and use Facebook to post about the other individual and give others information about the fights that they’ve had. This sucks other people into what is going and can be even more detrimental for the relationships. Next time you go to update your relationship status, think. Then think again.

Getting yourself together

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.