No Plus One, No Problem: The Art of Being Happily Single

<p>There was a time in my life when the allure of far-off places called to me like a siren&rsquo;s song. I was enchanted by the idea of endless explorations and new encounters. So, I set off on a journey that led me to live and work on a cruise ship and later to Taiwan, where I spent a year teaching English and diving into a culture so different from my own. Those days were filled with a sense of liberation that&rsquo;s hard to put into words.</p> <p>Yet, even amidst this period of personal discovery and freedom, external voices began to chip away at my resolve. They weren&rsquo;t loud, but they were persistent &mdash; nudges from society and familial expectations about settling down, especially as I hit my 30s. As many of us do, I folded under the weight of these external pressures. I returned to the United States and married a kind and caring individual.</p> <p>But here&rsquo;s the thing: even during my years of marriage, that deep-rooted yearning for unbridled freedom I once relished never left me. On the outside, my life appeared to be a well-curated story of societal benchmarks and grown-up achievements. However, deep within, there was an unmistakable sense that I was muffling a vital part of my true self. After nearly a decade in that relationship, I faced the difficult but freeing realization that I couldn&rsquo;t keep living a life molded by others&rsquo; expectations. So, I made the challenging, yet necessary, decision to get divorced.</p> <p><a href="https://medium.com/better-humans/no-plus-one-no-problem-the-art-of-being-happily-single-88b37b16c07">Read More</a></p>