It is absolutely everywhere. Every time you scroll through Instagram you come across at least one highly edited photo of a twinkling diamond sitting upon a perfectly manicured hand. After so many engagement announcements on Facebook and wedding invitations in the mail a girl has to think to herself at least once, “Well shit, what the hell am I doing wrong?”
Now, I am not trying to sabotage the happiness of those who are happily wed, for I believe each person has their own choices to make and fates to embrace. However, I, among many others, am one of the single women thinking to themselves, “Am I the only one getting left in the dust?”
Popular culture has tried to convince us that getting married young is the most recent and sought after trend. Well, I am sorry about it pop culture, but you’re wrong. Dead wrong.
According to Pew Research, “Barely half of adults ages 18 and older are married—51 percent in 2010, compared with 72 percent in 1960.”
Additionally, the rates of marriage are declining while the average marriage age is rising. The advances and social acceptance of birth control has given women opportunities in careers that they never would have dreamed of 60 years ago.
The median age of marriage in the 1960’s were the early 20’s for both men and women, compared to the median age in 2011 where women average 27-years-old and men wait to tie the knot until they are 29, said Pew Research.
Nevertheless, I understand completely that every once in a while a woman gets down on herself for being single. I won’t lie, it is lonely and self-esteem depleting; however, there are additional studies that say that single women are happier than those who are married.
This is because women find it easier to make life-long meaningful relationships with other women.
According to WebMD, “Men tend to have a certain homophobia about hanging out with another guy . . . For men it’s not so easy to sit down and have coffee or a leisurely dinner with another guy.”
WebMD continues by saying that wives or girlfriends tend to be the main source of emotional support for men, and when the relationship is over they lose that.
The simple solution is girl power. We all know the saying chicks before d—-, but in all seriousness friends are like bras, close to the heart and there for support. There is nothing more therapeutic than a night out with the girls… or even a night in front of the TV.
According to sciencedaily.com, gossip is even emotionally healing, “Although not associated with self-esteem or life satisfaction, higher levels of gossiping were associated with feelings of greater social support.”
So long story short, us single women are not necessarily the minority and even more importantly we are slowly becoming the majority. To put it simply I know that being single really sucks sometimes, like really sucks; however, it is not something that a tipsy night with the ladies can’t fix.
It’s okay to be alone, embrace it! Truly, this is the one time in your life that you don’t have to tend to a stinky husband or screaming kids. Travel, explore, learn, and most importantly enjoy the young life that you have. Single women really have all the power in the world because ultimately we are the ones that call the shots. As Mandy Hale once said, “‘Single’ is an opportunity to live life on your own terms and not to apologize.”
