You Are So Much More Than Your Single Status
Yes, even you.
You do not have a partner.
You do not have a spouse.
There isn’t a person who’s your built-in date for weddings, or family functions, or events for work.
When you go home, it’s just you. If someone is there, it’s because you asked them to come over. Nobody shares your space unless you invite them to it.
You are single.
But you are so much more than your single status.
You are someone’s child.
You are someone’s grandchild, too.
You are a coworker, a neighbor, a friend. You might be a brother or sister. Maybe you’re an aunt or uncle, too.
You were once someone’s student.
You are a teacher for more people than you know.
If you use social media — whether you have ten thousand followers or one hundred, you have a platform.
You have influence.
People are looking at what you say, what you do, what you feel, what you write, and what you post.
You are the dreams that are living inside your head, and you are the dreams that you have made come true, too.
You are the work that you have put in to get to this point in your life. Maybe that means you went to college and graduate school. Maybe that meant you saved your pennies for your medical school applications. While your friends were partying and traveling the world and meeting strangers and falling in love — you were at your parents’ house, studying till the early hours of the morning at the kitchen table. Maybe you studied so hard, but luck wasn’t on your side, so you had to sit for your exams not once, but twice, and while the world around you was getting married or having babies, you stayed stead in your pursuit to become a doctor.
Maybe that means you pursued a creative life and have spent early mornings waiting in line for auditions and late nights waiting tables and seeking out moments within the hustle of your day to cultivate and nourish your art.
Maybe your work is in a classroom or a courtroom. Maybe some people depend on your wisdom and your insight and your words every day, and every day you show up for them.
Maybe your work looks like a completely different picture — maybe you travel the world, speak to new communities, meet new faces, and listen to new stories.
Maybe you’ve swum in the Mediterranean and seen the lights of Paris, and climbed the temples of Thailand, and seen the deserts of the Middle East, and seen what an elephant is like beyond the walls of a zoo.
Maybe you’ve been to towns so tiny that they wouldn’t come up on a map, but they’ve taken up permanent residence in your heart.
Maybe.
Maybe you’re something else entirely.
But the one constant that remains is that there is so much to all that is you — and all of it extends far beyond the scope of your single status.
You are more than “single” — and when you find a love that makes you happy, you’ll be more than “married” or “together” with someone, too.
Previously published on Thought Catalog, here.
