"You can't really love someone else until you love yourself." It's cliche and it's definitely been said a thousand times before, but there's a second part to this age old advice: You can't love yourself until you know yourself.

At 18 you barely know yourself and by 19, you’re starting to figure it out. You need time to figure yourself out and make mistakes. Your early 20s are the time to be selfish. As you become an “adult” you're picking where you want to go to school, hopefully a couple years later you have a pretty good idea of what you want to do with your life and just a year or two after that you're making even more major decisions: Grad school, internships, jobs at home, jobs across the country, etc. So why is this the time to be single?

You get to find yourself in college, you get to become an individual. You meet new people, find new interests and fall in love with the world you're in. At this point in your life you're changing and growing, and that's hard to do when you're tied to another person. This is the time that get to know yourself and what you want. This is the time where you learn to truly love who you are. Though possible, it is extremely hard to do this in a relationship. You don't get to be selfish and you don't get to learn how to be on your own.

Being single allows you the freedom to study abroad or to take the job across the country. It let's you experience life in the way you and you alone want to. I'm a firm believer that everyone needs to have independence and we all need to learn to be on our own, at least for awhile. How else are you supposed to learn who you are? Being single allows you the opportunity to be who you are and take the risks you want without worrying about what anyone else wants.

You have your entire life to "find love and settle down" and you should know that happiness can be found on your own. It's true what they say, you know. you really can't love someone else until you love yourself, but what's even more true is that you must first know yourself in order to find that self love.