The Perks of Being Single

In terms of relationships, I spent the last half of 2008 being in a semi-official, kind-of-not-really-but-really relationship¹. By the time 2009 rolled around, I was once again officially single. And while it was a little heartbreaking at first (although that could be attributed to the demise of the quasi-relationship that I was in rather than my actual newly single state) it was good to be single once again. With all the hype surrounding Valentine’s Day, I think now is as good a time as ever to focus on the perks of being single.

I love being independent. I always have, and while I don’t mind all the sharing and spending of time together that comes with being in a relationship, I also love not having to answer to anyone. I love being able to do whatever I want, whenever I want, and that none of my actions could land me in trouble with my significant other. I am a flirtatious person by nature, and while I obviously refrain from flirting with others when I’m in a relationship, it’s nice to be able to interact with boys the way I naturally would rather than having to keep myself in check². I love the freedom of being single. Acting however I want around whomever I want to be around is fantastic, and I love not having to divide my time between a boy and my friends.

All of that is fairly easy to give up when you find someone you want to be with, but it’s hard to find someone that’s worth it. So hard that in fact, I might prefer being single over being in a relationship. At least with being single you still have the freedom to scope out and have fun with the fish in the sea!

Question of the Week: Even if you are currently in a relationship, everyone’s been single at one point or another. What do you feel are some of the perks, or benefits, of being single?

1. That description doesn’t even begin to describe how complicated the situation was. I could write an entire novel about the whole story [↩]
2. I sound like a tease when it’s phrased like that, but honestly, that’s not how it is. There’s simply a delicate balance between coming across as a natural flirt or a forceful flirt, especially when you are meeting new people and your “sort of” relationship situation is too complicated to explain [↩]

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.