On Dating

It's a misleading title because generally speaking, I'm not a dater. I've been single a little over 6 months now (I think) and I'm quite enjoying being on my own, which is much to the dissatisfaction of my Nana, who is rather vocal about her aspirations for my wedding finger. (I think it's important to note here that I'm only 22. I was only 21 when my last relationship ended, but my Nan's immediate response to the news was 'you've just wasted two years of your life!')

Meanwhile, my Mum is much less vocal about it. I feel like she's a bit torn: she wants grandkids, but she also wants me to be young and free for as long as possible. She wants grandkids, but she knows I'd rather shave my head than get married any time soon. But she wants grandkids. Not on my watch, Mother.

Every now and again I might have a date. I don't really know why, because I'm usually sat there thinking about where I'm up to in The Office. I have also now promised myself I will never mention any future dates to my Mum. The barest hint of any romantic possibilities and she gets this odd little tone in her voice, like she's talking to a dying relative. Nice and positive, without being too committal. Essentially, in her eyes, my love life is terminally ill.

(Incidentally, I got the dying relative voice this morning as I have a date tonight. He seems like a nice enough chap, but uses 'pants' as an adjective. I'll keep you updated with that one.)

I could tell you a bad date story if you like, but he follows me on Twitter. Sod it. To be fair, it wasn't the date that was bad. He's half German but tells people he's half Swedish because he's textbook Aryan with the blonde hair and blue eyes, but he doesn't want to get mixed up with white supremacy. That just rings alarm bells to me from the off. That was in March, and it's only taken me 3 months or so to be open to the idea that perhaps they're not all convinced they'll be mistaken for Nazis.

Something else that concerns me is that all of a sudden, everybody's online dating. Not even just on the free sites! A friend who I would have never have anticipated getting on board with it is on match.com. It seems like all of a sudden everyone's graduating, and moving out, and they're all in this huge hurry to get everything ticked off. Job, tick. Flat, tick. Other half, tick.

I considered it for about 10 seconds after hearing my match.com friend's exploits (I was going to make a cheap pun, but you know where I'm going), but I've not even got the energy for listing myself as 'single' on Facebook. In writing this post I've been considering why I'm enjoying it so much. It's not because I'm a particularly popular singleton, because I'm not. I've not got a different booty call for every night of the week. I'm much more a 'get my jamas on and cuddle up with the cat' type, and it's just hit me, why I enjoy being by myself so much. It's because I'm selfish. I'm totally okay with this.