Not Alone Series: what I LOVE about being single

grrr I'm late to the link-up! dang it travelling-everywhere-for-work!

aaaanyway, thanks for joining Jen and I for another NAS topic!

I feel like I've lost so many years to wallowing in the fact that I was "alone" and therefore negating any good things in my life simply because I wasn't dating anyone. When I finally took a step back and looked at my life and all of the great things about it, I was able to appreciate the beauty of being single! Granted, it takes a daily effort to enjoy my singlehood, but I think it's so important to enjoy life, no matter what stage you're currently at!

Of all of the things that I love about being single, one words encompasses them all: FREEDOM.

Freedom in Time
I work some really crazy hours, so being able to stay at work until 11PM some days without breaking plans is awesome. On the other hand, on the rare occasion that I leave work at 5, if I want to spend my evening catching up on Grey's Anatomy or the Big Bang Theory and eating ice cream for dinner, that's fine too! I've recently started to enjoy my alone time and it's really great to be able to do whatever I want, whenever I want, and for however long I want to!

Financial Freedom
I mean, let's get real. I work for a non-profit organization. I raise my own support.
The amount of money going into my bank account isn't an overwhelming amount, but I'm perfectly happy to live frugally and spend thriftily. And actually, I think choosing on my own to live this way will help me once I do have a husband and family because I've never lived extravagantly and therefore won't have an issue living on a budget. HOWEVER, should I decide that I need some new work clothes, I can independently make that decision and go buy them!

Freedom to "Get Up and Go"
This is my favorite, by far. I LOVE having the freedom to decide on a whim to go to St. Louis for the weekend or decide 30 minutes ahead of time to go home to surprise my family for the weekend. Also, there have been numerous times this past year when my coworkers forgot to tell me about an event I was expected to attend or we had to leave two days early/stay two days late for a business trip and it's not an issue for me to clear my schedule and go. (that's not to say that I love the last minute notice, but still...)

That's just a brief overview, believe me, I could go on and on and on....but I won't. At least not today :)
While I think we can all agree that while this period of singlehood isn't always sunshine and rainbows, there is good in it! Just because one area of our life is still a work in progress doesn't mean that there isn't joy and happiness in our overall life! We should try to enjoy it while we can, because I hear that someday we'll look back and wish we could spend just one more day in that former life.
I for one don't want to look back and wish I would have embraced my life for what it was, rather I want to look back with fondness of this time before marriage/kids/poopy diapers/up-all-night-not-because-I'm-partying.

Now excuse me while I put on my PJs and dig into some Rocky Road :)

Head over to Jen's to link up with YOUR favorite things about being single!

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Next week's topic:

What can you work on NOW to prepare you for your future vocation?

(prayer? giving of your time more? hanging around kids to see if you can envision your life with them? It will be different for all of us. Pray and really reflect what things you need to work on so you can serve your hubby/community the best way you can.)

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***Help! Jen and I would like some feedback! How do you think things are going?! Are the topics good? Too surface or need to go deeper? Is the frequency ok (meaning, is the every week posting cool, or should it change to every other, etc)? Please be honest with us. This isn't about us, and we want to be sure we are reaching out to all of you so we are ALL benefiting from this awesome series. Please comment or email us! Thank you soooooo much!!!***