My singleness always felt like a problem needing to be fixed. At the same time I constantly felt powerless to changing it because it was the man's role to initiate. I didn't realize how much my environment was constantly reinforcing this idea of my singleness as a problem by over romanticizing and the role of marriage. The problem wasn't my singleness it was the reality of not being deemed worthy of attention, love, respect, responsibility, or even value because of what I didn't have... a wedding ring.  These natural things I desired meant I had to put my life dreams aside and focus on coupling up before I hit the age that was a wasteland to coupling up being in an institution out numbered 3 women to 1 man. This is the reality of being single. This is my story.