By Frankie Van Sickle, Contributing Writer
I never thought about dating until I got into my later years in high school. I remember being in school and hearing others talk about boys or girls that they were interested in. This was my first exposure to the dating scene. As you get older, it’s like an expectation to start dating people.
You see in all these movies of happy couples and people who are lucky enough to get married. It never made me realize what was being pushed into our minds of what your life is supposed to be like.
In movies, being single just makes you look like you are depressed or that you’re very lonely in your life. In reality, some people are like that and others are the happiest they could be.
Personally, I was both when I was single.
Before I started dating in high school, I was depressed and felt so lonely because I thought I needed someone. It felt like going to be like this because others make you feel bad for being lonely.
After some time, I was finally happy with being single. I was living my life and having a great time. I only relied on myself and my friends to have the best time of my life.
Now dating someone for almost three years, I still understand being single is great. Dating is a lovely thing as well, but there are pros and cons to both of them.
Going into college and starting to make more adult friends, I realized that there are way more people wanting to be single and having the best time of their own lives. Most of my friends now are single, even though they are open to dating. They aren’t trying to be defined by getting that person that everyone wants them to do.
Is being single going to be the new normal?
Our society used to be so focused on finding that perfect someone, and in other countries, arranged marriages for money or combined wealth are large aspects of life. We were so used to this idea that even in movies.
We do see a lot of people getting married and movies being focused on finding that one perfect person for themselves. Do we still need to be doing this anymore? We shouldn’t.
Our society is changing so much that it’s going to need to adapt to this.
Single people are becoming more and more likely. Even divorce rates are high, but that mostly coincides with an unhappy marriage. But we need to be more catering to single people, and how we don’t need to cater to dating culture.
Even though I am part of the dating culture, I strongly believe that being single is starting to become normal. We shouldn’t try to change this either, as everyone has the right to do whatever they want. If they don’t want someone, then don’t force that onto them. Let people do what they want to do, and then we can change ourselves to that reality.
vansicfr18@bonaventure.edu.
