Dear Former Relationship-Obsessed Katie,
It is February 2022 and you are thriving and sometimes barely *just barely* surviving adulthood. You graduated from Meredith College with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Mathematics with minors in Statistics, Website Development, and Data Science. You are employed. You’ve traveled the world and are continuing to, whether near or far. You are sustaining yourself financially. You feel empowered. You have the blog of the dreams. You have a dog named Rosie. You also live with Papa and love it all. You have extraordinary friendships that you’ve maintained over the years, yet you’ve lost some friends along the way too. Through it all, you have become stronger. You love yourself and are proud of what you’ve accomplished. You may be surprised, but through all of this you are also happily single.
YES, you Katie, are happily single in 2022. You’re single AND loving it – something you thought you would never hear before in your life. While you’re reading this, you are probably shocked and that is OKAY. Time will tell, but you’ll be happy being YOU more than you will be dating someone else in February 2022. In fact, you even had the best Valentine’s Day 2022, spending it with your Papa and dog making crab legs and Barramundi (a fish that Papa and I both LOVED!) single and ALL. You’ll be able to travel, have your evenings to yourself, and simply the freedom of not having to worry about anyone else. When you’re worried about when and who you’ll end up with in the long run, just remember to enjoy your time as the extraordinary woman that you are, being you and enjoying the moments. You’re single but it doesn’t define you. If you’re content with who YOU are then that is all that you need in life.
You will enter into a relationship. The relationship that you thought you have dreamed of. You will date somebody that you think will be your lifelong one. However, in short notice, you will realize that this person is anything but for you. This relationship of yours will get too serious too fast for your liking. It will provide you with the allusion that you are supposed to be committed to this person for life – a person that is anything but committed to you in the way that you are to them. You will have a Valentine’s Day with them, which will SUCK and that’s okay. It will get better once you release that they are not ever your forever. But, remember, that you DO NOT ever have to commit to them. You will miss your single days while dating this person. You WILL become single again and you will learn to love your single days.
Flash forward to May 2021, and you will graduate from Meredith College. You will move to the Washington, DC area which will become your post graduation dream while in college. You will move in with Papa and continue to love every minute of your time with him. You will adopt your dog Rosie. You will love every minute of it all and continue to simply enjoy the moment. You will be repulsed, in fact, by the idea of a relationship. Singleness will be your contentment and you will thrive in it all. You’ll enjoy your memories as a single woman and continue to do so, especially as you want to look back on your single days happy and content when you find your one and only.
Although you are very content with your single days, remember that you will feel sad being single at times and that is OKAY. Through it all, remember to believe in love, even when you don’t think it’s near. You can and WILL find your one and only one day and it’ll be beautiful. But, remember to enjoy the single days and let them outweigh the days you may not enjoy, whatever the case may be (such as being sick or stressed with work or even just mentally struggling). Believe!
While you dealt and will continue to deal with a lot of heartbreak, remember that at the end of the day, you are not alone. You will always have yourself. Nobody is ever alone. You will become content with yourself and that is ALL that matters.
XOXO – Katie <3