Eternal Bachelor

The "Bachelor Life" inherently involves two things: being single and acting single. You make plans as they come, there is no set night for anything. You make talk to anyone at the crowded bar without hesitation. Most of being a bachelor comes naturally, take the home for instance.

The set up of your home screams "bachelor" even if you barely feel a whisper when you are there. The all black furniture, the simplicity of the coffee table with the three magazines clearly set-up for company. One side of the bed is deeper than the other, and you clean before company or when you choose to do so. The fridge remains 60% or less full. Your neighbors may not know your name, but they know your single due to the occasional night of parties, the random nights, or mornings, when dates can be seen leaving the apartment.  The fact you never decorate your door for the winter holidays, and do not show up to the community meetings.

All you really have to do to be single is to not get married. People, largely women, seem to believe that once you are engaged that you cease being single. However, if that were true, then why would the parties at the end of the engagement be called bachelor/bachelorette parties? Why is it that when information is requested, including the census, are your options: single, married, divorced...you might see a separated based on the document, but never engaged or semi-single. Anyways I digress...single is at its core, being without others.Sometimes you may be moved to take on a cuddle buddy of sorts, you may date someone for a few months, maybe even entertain this person could be the one...sorry that was rude...you may even BELIEVE this person could be the one. However, as stated at the beginning of this paragraph, until I do, you're still single. You may have someone you love and care for but you are single...you are without.

See as a single person you are free of restraints. You can get up and move, without worrying about a mouth to feed or a significant other to bring with you. Being single actually, and often, can help you be a better friend. As you are free of entanglements, you show up without a plus one and free to get as imbibed as you want; they can count on you to come over when they need a shoulder to cry on or be free to take a last minute trip. You can take different jobs, or entertain a different variety of ideas, that you not so single friends cannot entertain. You can color outside the lines.

So the question is...if single is to essentially be free, then why is such a negative connotation attached to being single. Why...or how does single translate to being lonely? I can think of several animals off the top of my head including the snow leopard, humpback whale, giant panda and the komodo dragon that do not mate for life, often rarely outside mating season. So when did we come to the conclusion that not taking on a partner was a sad thing...a lonely thing to occur? Well per usual I do not have an answer. But what I can tell you is it is a beautiful thing to start a family, it is a beautiful thing to find someone you love and desire to spend your life with, it is a beautiful thing to take in a young life and help mold it into a b person who joins and contributes to society, and not of these things I mentioned are mutually exclusive. So while I spend another year of my life not dating, I have no qualms, because I just justified being single with this very post.