Single, White Unemployed Female: Single or Taken, Life's Good for Post-Grads

I guess this is where the “Single” in the column’s title comes into play. Thanks to Corey and Topanga Matthews on Boy Meets World, I always thought I would meet that “special someone” in high school or college.

We’d date through all the good and bad times, and eventually we’d get married during a special one-hour episode with our favorite teacher from high school, who happened to follow us to college, in attendance.

But life didn’t really go that way, and I am graduating as a single lady (complete with the one-shoulder leotard and Bob Fosse-inspired dance), while others are graduating engaged.

While I’m elated for my friends and acquaintances and congratulate them wholeheartedly, personally I need to be selfish for the next couple of years. As I wrote a few weeks ago, I still don’t know what exactly I want to do with my life, and therefore, the range of possibilities is endless. Those possibilities may take me somewhere far, and I’m happy knowing that I could do that easily, providing I have the financial means.

I’ll be honest. I used to think at one point anyone who got engaged in college was crazy, and that no one could truly know who they wanted to spend the rest of their life with before getting a diploma.

Starting junior year, Facebook began to inform me that wedding bells were in the future of so-and-so, while my status remained “single.”

I think it was the little ten year-old in me who had watched TGIF on ABC every Friday night looking around and realizing that I hadn’t met my Corey Matthews. I never planned on getting engaged in college, but I always thought that since I didn’t have a serious relationship in high school, that I would find that in college instead.

In the last two years, I’ve seen many friends of mine graduate without a fiancé, or even a boyfriend, and they’re doing wonderfully. I have a friend who is living the dream in New York City, working for a record label. Another friend got a graduate degree from UVA and now works for the FBI, and is dating a great guy she met when she was at UVA.

On the other hand, I know lots of people who got engaged while in college who have since graduated and are doing just as great.

When I looked around and saw that all these people were happy with their lives, it was then I realized, hey, it’s okay. It’s worked out for my friends, and it’s going to work out for me. It’s also when I realized that it was going to work out for my engaged friends, too.

We all have different paths in life that we’re meant to take. For some, it’s a walk down the aisle earlier than others. But regardless of when or if that happens for each person, life is still good.