Today: Mar 29, 2024

Single for the holidays: How to survive

Natalie Barletta – Opinions Editor

How many of you have had this problem? You’re sitting at the holiday table with your relatives, enjoying whatever holiday food that is tradition for you and your family. Conversation is mostly small talk, considering that you don’t see your relatives for most of the year. However, one of your relatives begins to ask you about what you’re doing with your life.

What are you doing after you graduate? Where do you intern? Do you have any job offers yet? And finally comes the dreaded question: ‘are you still single? Why haven’t you found a boyfriend yet?’

Well that made the talk get awkward really quickly.

Being single around the holidays can be extremely awkward for many reasons. For starters, you see all of those social media posts about what their significant others gave them as presents. Then you see pictures of engagement rings, couples baking cookies and other treats together and those cute couples posing next to Christmas trees. Some of these are cute, when done right. For others, it can feel like it’s more for bragging rights than anything else.

Needless to say if you’re single, the holidays can be a difficult time for those who don’t have a significant other by their side. Then there’s those relatives who have to ask you every single thing about your love life to the point where it can be uncomfortable.dinner table

For those of you who are single during this time of year, it’s not the end of the world. It’s similar to being single on Valentine’s Day where you feel like you’re surrounded by a sea of couples, and you’re the only one who’s in on their own. But, the difference between Valentine’s Day and the December holidays is that Valentine’s Day is only one day out of the year. The holiday season is just a few days out of the year.

However, first realize that you’re not the only one whose single. Chances are, there are many people who are single out there. However, when you’re scrolling down your news feed, it’s going to feel like you’re overwhelmed with a sea of couples having fun with their significant other which can be depressing.

When this happens remind yourself that being single is a temporary state, and eventually you’ll find someone to bake cookies and trim the tree with. Social media is rumored to be linked to depression, and this is something that is no exception because you can feel left out.

In the mean time, spend some quality time with your friends, making your own memories and social media posts. Who said anything about needing a boyfriend or a girlfriend to have fun? Chances are, you can bake cookies and have holiday parties with your friends.

The holidays also include spending some quality time with your family, whether you like it or not. Although family time can be fun, it also can be annoying to have to sit there while eating Grandma’s famous Christmas cookies while getting the third degree. Soon, Aunt Ruth is asking about why you haven’t brought a guy/girl home to meet your family. Well, that made things awkward.

When this happens, the best thing that you can do is take a breath and relax. Believe it or not, your relatives are just asking about your life because they want to know what’s going on in it. Just say something along the lines of, ‘I‘m currently really busy trying to get good grades’ or something along those lines.

Being single during the holidays is no different than being single during every day of the year. The only difference is that during the holidays, you tend to be surrounded it with more because people are posting about it more. Just remember that you’re not going to be single forever and the holidays are more for thinking about what you do have, versus what you don’t.

Photo Credit: ChrisPhoto, Randy Robertson

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