Member-only story
Being single and normalizing loneliness
Love, romance the single & the lonely.
Some people, regardless of what they look like, what kind of human beings they are, or how much money they make, are rarely single. They seem to glide in and out of relationships effortlessly, while people like me find it nearly impossible to have romantic opportunities “just unfold” whenever we happen to be looking. Unlike most people I know, I’ve lived most of my adult years as a single person. Not an unmarried person with an active dating life, but a person that’s been alone. Some of us just have a hard time finding companions. I didn’t have a girlfriend until I was 20, and from that time, until I was 36, I enjoyed 4 rewarding relationships, one of those resulting in a marriage. After 36 I experienced more solitude than I ever imagined I would. I spent the next 11 years single before my son introduced me to one of his coworkers, which quickly developed into cohabitation and engagement. That made for a nice year, but we moved way too fast and it didn’t endure. Other than a regrettable one-year period where I was involved with a separated, but still married woman in 2016, I’ve been flying solo.
Dissimilar to those that favor the privacy and convenience of a solitary lifestyle, I’m not single because I prefer being alone. I love romance and the strength that comes from sharing my life with someone. I’ve chosen to remain single because of…
