Maybe it makes people uncomfortable or doubtful when they hear it, but I'm very happy being single. I grew up an only child. I've always been alone — never lonely, but often alone — and I like it that way. I've had boyfriends, crushes, and flings; bothered with fuckbois, and made friends with benefits. But I've never gone looking for them. And I've never felt the need to create a lasting partnership with one of them. Not because they weren't "good" men, or because I didn't care for them, and not because I'm not "worthy" (which is the most annoying thing I've ever heard), but because I just didn't want to.

Maybe I'm just 29 and I haven't "found the right guy yet," like my mom always says. Maybe I haven't experienced that "can't eat, can't sleep" love yet. Maybe the dating scene has turned my heart cold. Or maybe, just maybe, I feel fulfilled already.

I like spending my time taking dance classes and helping young women of colour get into university, and volunteering for my alma mater's alumnae groups. I like nourishing all my friendships and familial relationships. But I also like eating alone at a restaurant on a Friday afternoon, never sharing the last bit of ice cream, and going to the movies by myself. I want my free time to be dedicated to just one person: me. That's why I don't even have a cat or a dog or a cactus.

I have friends who have been in decade-long relationships that left them feeling unhappy. I have friends who are happily married and constantly adjusting to being a pair rather than a single entity. I have friends who are having babies, and friends who are worried about being alone forever. I don't think any of them are crazy and I respect their choices.

I don't have those things. I also don't have any moments when I feel incomplete because it's just me.

Maybe one day, I'll fall so deeply in love that I'll want a true partner (I like to think that I'll already be so happy with myself that it would make that relationship stronger). But then again, maybe I won't. Maybe I'll be single forever.

And I'm okay with that. I'm not asking you to be okay with it, too, or challenging your view of what happiness means to you. I'm just asking you to get off my back about it. I'm just asking that you don't pray for me to stop being single — and pray for me to keep being happy, instead.