For the Single Ladies

It's the day of the year that can strike fear in the hearts of single ladies everywhere.  Valentine's Day. I remember, oh, do I remember.  

I'm not going to sugar coat it for you.  Being a single lady in her late twenties was hard.  Real hard.  I know what it's like to go to multiple weddings alone.....your younger sibling, your best friends, your former love.  I remember what it felt like to watch everyone else finding Mr. Right and feeling like mine must not exist.  I cried.  I prayed.  I struggled.

And on Valentine's Day, the situation often got even worse.  One time, the boy who I thought I was in love with took me for a $4 dinner and out to the bar, only to come over later and tell me he needed to drop me off early because another girl was going to come out at meet him.  Ouch.  Another, Valentine's Day, I went to a rom com alone at the movie theater.  There I was, solo, in a room full of couples out on their dates.  But I didn't stop there.  Because I'm cheap, I smuggled in food, which I then offered to share with those young couples around me.  "Do you kids want some fruit," said the old spinster.  Yep.  It happened.

But you know what?  I also lived.  I mean really lived.  I traveled the world.  Went crazy on a bucket list.  I collected cute shoes and spent too much money on football tickets.  I flew across states to surprise friends at their baby showers and saw a river dyed green and ate pizza and drank wine in Rome.  I ran half marathons and rode on ferries and have never missed a family ski trip.  I've ziplined through the jungle and prayed before relics and run with my aunts through the mud.

And all that living I did?  I have absolutely no doubt that it prepared me to recognize Mr. Right when he showed up.  Equally as important, I firmly believe that living helped me to discover the person who I am called to be.

So today.....you go live.  Do something crazy.  Set a wild goal.  Offer some dried fruit to kids at the movie theater.  Because you don't have time to sit around dwelling on what you don't have, you're too busy becoming who you should be.  Enjoy every minute.