Singles Awareness Day

Guess what (as of about an hour ago) day it is? That's right, Valentine's Day! Exciting, right?

Well, not for many people. For those who are single, this day can serve as a pointed reminder that they don't have anyone. Some of my friends like to use the term "Singles Awareness Day" to describe the holiday. And in fairness, it can be kinda rough to watch so many people around you enjoying a holiday for couples and romance when you have no significant other and no viable prospects. But...

Being single isn't all bad.

There are some nice benefits to being single. I know, I know, some people like to go on about all the so called "benefits", yet are in a relationship or (even worse) already married. Kinda makes you want to slap them. Well, I am actually single. So hear me out...

As a single, you pretty much have free reign over your time. Especially as a college student, you have no one to tell you when to go someplace, when to come back, when to meet, when to eat, when to sleep, etc. Significant others tend to limit this freedom, as you will have to try to work your schedule around theirs so that you can see each other.

You also have a lot more free time as a single. Relationships take time, there's no way around it. You may enjoy most of that time, but it's still time you can't spend on other things. So as a single, enjoy the extra free time and find something fun or useful to do with it.

When you're single, you don't have to deal with the fights and emotional bullshit, at least not often. Inevitably, couples will have fights and disagreements, some more than others. Singles generally don't, or if they do, their fights are less severe and cause them less trouble.

Singles get more social freedom, too. A single guy could go out with one of his ladyfriends and hang out all night with her, and the most trouble he'd get would be people giving him sly looks as they asked him what was going on. That's a lot better than accusations of cheating.

Single people get to focus more on growing and maintaining friendships. By contrast, we've all seen the guy who finds a girl and ditches all of his friends to hang out with her 24/7. Even in less extreme examples, couples generally spend time apart from everyone else. As a single, enjoy being able to spend all the time you want making and hanging out with lots of good friends.

These reasons, I feel, are some pretty good ones to appreciate being single. I'm not trying to say that being single is better than being in a relationship, because I myself am not always happy being alone. I'm just saying, flying solo isn't all bad.

Keep that in mind as you suffer through this overcommercialized and nausea-inducing excuse for a holiday. And look forward to the clearance priced candy on Monday. Woo hoo!