I’ve never directly responded to a stranger's Odyssey article, but this one was so absurd I had to do something about it. So that's what this article is.
While I'm tired of the "I'm single and sooo happy!!! Screw couples! Look at me proudly living my life without a man!" thing, I'm also over the "I am a girl without a boyfriend, and my identity is defined by not having a boyfriend" thing and the "I'm a woman so my life has to be consumed by finding a man" thing. That's some Pride and Prejudice-era crap and I'm over it for 2018.
So here's – in my experience – a day in the life of a single college girl:
7 a.m. Sort of wake up. See that your roommate is already awake and getting ready so you finally guilt yourself to get out of bed. Put on clothes, make yourself feel comfortable going out in public, enjoy a breakfast before your day starts.
8 a.m. Go to class. Discuss important things with classmates, putting to use the hours you spent preparing, writing, reading and doing other homework. Enrich your life. Grow as a human.
9 a.m. Text a friend, see if they want to go out to coffee to chat or do homework together. Because you have a spare hour in your schedule and you dearly value time with your friends.
10 a.m. Go outside and enjoy the air and the sunshine for a moment before you press on through your day. Find something beautiful, decompress from your week.
11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Go to work, because you're a financially-responsible, self-sustaining young woman and a college student with tuition bills.
6 p.m. Grab a friend or five and go eat dinner together.
7 p.m. Rest briefly before beginning your nightly homework marathon.
8 p.m. Continue homework.
9 p.m. Have a minor mental breakdown/homework break with your roommate. Then continue homework.
10 p.m. – 12 a.m. and beyond Do homework until you fall asleep desperately. Wonder briefly how you could possibly even fit a boyfriend in your life.
Obviously, this is a quite dramatic, inconsistently realistic account of my day to day as a single college-aged woman; however, I still find it more accurate and reasonable than the article I am responding to.
I don't want to invalidate you if you are single and feel bad about it sometimes. I understand the type of loneliness you feel sometimes. I get that you want to build a life with someone one day. And I know it sometimes sucks to see couples who seem so happy. But: GIRL, YOU'RE IN COLLEGE. You have a life to live, and that life doesn’t stop without a partner, nor does it need to orbit around that one aspect of the complexity that is you.