I never thought I’d be single this long. Actually, let me rephrase thought, I was always terrified I would be single this long. At some point though my terror transformed and what I once thought was the worst thing that could possibly ever happen, is something I now celebrates as a precious gift, the gift of time.
Every day I’m grateful for the time I’ve had to pursue my dreams, to do the things I’ve always wanted to do, to get to know myself and to do it during a time in history when there have never been so many women living this way. At no other time in history have so many North American single women had so many rights and freedoms.
In 2009, there were 96.6 million unmarried Americans 18 years of age or older in the US, that’s 43% of the population and just over half of these 53% were women. We have Ohio’s Buckeye Singles Council to thank for forming National Singles Week in the 1980s to celebrate single life and recognize singles and their contributions to society. To celebrate this year and to mark our 1st year anniversary, we’d like to acknowledge the accomplishments of a different single woman every day this week, starting with Supreme Court Justice Eleanor Kagan.
The former U.S. Solicitor General and Dean of Harvard Law officially began her term on August 7th and has beaten back speculation about her sexuality and taken flack for her careerism in the place of a husband and family.
Known as a progressive and for her ability to convince people with wildly diverse opinions, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig wrote that, “Kagan’s experience over the past two decades has been all about moving people of different beliefs to the position she believes is correct. Not by compromise, or caving, but by insight and strength.”
I’m not against a partnership with the right person and celebrate my friends who have chosen that for themselves but if Kagan chose to grow her career instead of a husband and kids, is that choice really such a bad one? Isn’t that freedom of choice the whole point of being a single woman in America? What do you think? How are you celebrating being single?
