LOVE, LIFE, & RELATIONSHIPS
A Love Letter to Single People
With Valentine’s Day this week, let’s remember seven types — or maybe just ONE thing — about love.
Several years ago, but still years after a younger version of me assumed I’d have been hitched and starting a family, I decided my WOTY — word of the year — would be “love.” I admit it felt aspirational at the time, but something inside of me knew that all of the messaging that suggests I’m “incomplete” if I’m not part of a couple was just plain wrong.
That messaging can be relentless. I remember walking through a department store in my early 20s and hearing a televised display in the bridal registration section gravely announce, “Now that you’re getting married, your life can begin.” I nearly fell over at the ridiculousness of it. Was I not alive at that very moment? Was I just in a holding pattern until I found one person with whom I’d march down an aisle and pledge to be with until death (or an affair or we just outgrew each other or realized we’d been way too young and made a mistake) do us part? Eesh.
But not all messages are so blatant and it’s the subtle ones that can eat away at our peace of mind. A steady stream of fictional stories in movies and on television along with real-life wedding…
