I’ve seen friends get engaged after two months and everyone cheers 🎉, while I get asked for the hundredth time, “Don’t you want someone to settle down with?” as if my life isn’t already full.

Being single makes me notice things I never used to. How quiet my apartment feels at night, how I can binge-watch whatever I want without judgment 🍿, how I can make plans on a whim without needing approval. But it also makes me confront a strange kind of fear—the fear that people will assume I can’t handle responsibility, that independence is lonely by default 🏠😔.

Sometimes I envy those whirlwind romances, the shared laughter, the inside jokes. But then I remember the freedom that comes with sleeping diagonally across the bed, eating cake for breakfast, or taking off for a spontaneous road trip 🚗💨. That freedom isn’t loneliness—it’s power. And it’s mine.

The strange part is, I catch myself imagining a “perfect match” sometimes, not out of desperation, but curiosity. Could someone actually fit into this life I’ve built? Or is that whole idea just a fantasy we’ve been sold? 🤷‍♀️

So here’s the question I can’t stop asking myself: is being single truly a choice, or is it just the world forcing you to learn who you are first? 🌙