It’s that time of year once again when everyone around you is soft-launching relationships and coming out of the woodwork with new boos. Where does this leave the chronically single? Another year of “there’s someone out there” and “your time will come”? Longingly doom-scrolling through social media wishing you had a date to the fair or a pumpkin patch in the middle of nowhere? Here’s a message: it won’t change. At least for a little while.
In the grand scheme of things, you’d love a partner. Someone to wake up next to in the morning and come home to after a long day at work. A constant companion to share your dreams and nightmares with. Someone to tell your accomplishments and your failures. Before you decide that romantic interest is something you truly desire, look to those around you first. You more than likely have friends or family that are there to listen and support and pour into. If you don’t, that’s okay too. You are your own biggest cheerleader at the end of the day.
This isn’t to promote radical self-love and eradicate all hopes of finding someone. If anything, that’s all singles have ever been told. “Love yourself,” “focus on you”. These things are all said with the best interest in mind. The problem with such reassurance, though, is that loving yourself should not be considered a benchmark in order to love someone else. Loving yourself should be ever-present whether you’re dating someone or not.