15 Signs You've Been Single For Too Long

Being a member of the single woman club can feel pretty special at first. You're being offered an endless supply of pizza, wine, and Netflix. Come on, who wouldn't love that? you definitely do. Well, at least for the first little while. If you have fellow single friends, then you enjoy this time in your life even more since it means that you always have people around to grab a few drinks, share an order of sweet potato fries, and dish about your latest dates (both good and bad… well, let's be real, mostly the bad). When the novelty wears off, however, you realize that you hate being single. And not only that, but you've been on your own for much longer than you thought you would be… or even wanted to be. Yup, this is awkward and yet it happens a lot. You realize that you would never eat pizza again if it meant falling in love. Yes, you love pizza but this is how committed you are to finding someone to share your life with. Here are 15 signs that you've been single for too long.

15 No One Offers You A Plus-One To An Event

You have reached the point where no one ever thinks that you are going to bring a date to an event. Your best friend's birthday party? She totally knows that you will be rolling solo. Your aunt's retirement party? Same deal. Honestly, why would your friends and family think that you would bring someone? You never do. They would love nothing more than to see you fall in love and you know that. They just figure there is not much chance of that happening in this century. Hey, they care about you but they are not totally delusional. You are not even offended because they are probably right, Well, at least that is how it feels. You have been single for so long that you can even imagine being able to bring someone to these fun events. And yes, that sucks a lot more than you ever thought that it possibly would. Sigh.

14 You Have A Dry Year (Or More)

Your dry spell doesn't last a month. You're talking about a dry year. Or even more. Yup, that's what's going on in your life right now. That's how you definitely know that you've been single longer than you thought you would be. You want to laugh when your BFFs ask when the last time you hooked up with someone was. You don't even remember when you last kissed someone, let alone did anything remotely R-rated. You're pretty much dealing with a dry year or a dry life, not just a period of time, and you're not sure when this is going to change. You are definitely sick of this because you would love to know if you still know how to kiss within this century. You're just not sure when this situation is going to turn around for the better. And it would be great if your best friends would stop asking you about this since you really don't want to discuss it.

13 You Are An Expert Binge-Watcher

Every reality show in existence? Check. The latest Netflix drama? You watched every episode in one day. From This Is Us to re-runs of Friends, you watch TV like it is going out of style. Sounds epic (in theory). And it kind of is. Well, for the first little while. Because you are living the dream and you are watching whatever you want, whenever you want. There is no one to fight over the remote control (or the Netflix equivalent of that). The problem? You are actually getting sick of sitting on your couch alone. Yup, you are. You did not think that would happen and yet it has. You really didn't think you would still be single and still consuming so much television. You would at least love to have someone sitting next to you so you can watch the latest Netflix show and talk about it. That's your new dream.

12 You Never Change Your Routine

When you're single, it's really tempting to keep up with the schedule that you've created for yourself. Everyone does this, so it's not just you. You do the same things all the time without fail. You don't have a reason to switch things up since you still don't have a boyfriend. There's no one in your life telling you to try something new on a Sunday morning instead of grabbing a coffee and reading in your apartment, or to ask if you want to try a new restaurant on a Friday night. You enjoy your life, sure, and maybe you don't even think about the fact that you're single all that much. Well, at least you don't think about it all that much for the first little while that you're on your own. Then, before you know it, you're stuck in a rut with no hope of ever getting out, and you feel so trapped you wouldn't even know how to make a change.

11 You Could Give Online Dating Seminars

You've used pretty much every dating app and site in existence. You're not proud of it… except you kind of are. Because you are such an expert, you could teach a class. You know what opening messages get responses, how to tell if a guy is worth meeting IRL, when you're going to get canceled on, and so on. It's an art and you're practically Picasso. Of course, you would trade all this knowledge for an actual relationship, but for now, you're going to make yourself feel better by being happy about your online dating expertise. At the very least, you're the expert in your friend group since you know so much and people are always texting you for dating advice. It's either totally depressing or completely amazing. Sometimes you think it's both. It really just depends on the day. For now, you're full of dating knowledge and that's how you know you've been single for a really long time.

10 You're The Bad Date Guru

Yup, you've been on so many horrible dates that you really know your stuff at this point. If you've been studying online dating, then you've been majoring in bad dates. Because as every super single girl knows, dates are mostly terrible, and that's just the way that it goes.  Your single friends are your biggest fans since you always have the best advice. From guys who bail at the first sign of commitment to the wonderful world of almost relationships, you're never afraid to tell the truth. You wish you didn't have this much experience, which just proves you've been on your own much longer than you thought you would be. Of course, people in relationships have gone on bad dates too. It's just that since you've been on your own for a long time, you have even more expertise since you tend to go on more bad dates than them.

9 You're Super Cynical

Something pretty crazy and annoying happens when you're single for a long time: you stop looking forward to first dates. More than that, you stop even being happy about your dating life at all. You totally get that sometimes, you have to talk yourself into going on dates because otherwise, you would sit at home forever and never meet anyone. You also get that attitude is everything in life and that if you claim that a date will suck, it just might. The problem is that you've had so many awful experiences that it's impossible at this point to make yourself think that a date will go well. It would be awesome if you could approach a first date as the chance to meet someone amazing or at least have a good time. Yeah right. You're more cynical than you ever expected to be and you think you're going to leave every date exactly the same as before: still single.

8 You Assume That Nothing Will Work Out

When you do meet a halfway decent guy, you should be jumping for joy, right? You should think that there is at least a remote possibility that you could leave your solo life behind and embark on a real relationship. That is not you. You wish it could be. When you are daydreaming about your next relationship (which you do sometimes -- okay, all the time -- okay, every day), you picture yourself being absolutely thrilled with your good luck. You swear that you are going to appreciate each and every moment of a new relationship because you have been single for so long and you have waited forever for this. But that is not how it goes in your real life. Instead, you assume that things will never work out with that seemingly great new guy that you just met. You approach dating him as if you are walking the plank.

7 You Wonder Why You Even Bother Trying

It's hard to stay positive when your life is a steady stream of disappointing dates and you always seem to be spending another Saturday night alone (well, when your BFFs are busy and you can't see them, of course). You ask yourself why you even keep trying. You ask yourself if you really think that love is still in the cards for you. Once you go down this road, you know that a.) you're single AF and b.) you're starting to depress yourself. You almost don't want to know the answer to those questions. You don't want your worst nightmares to be confirmed: that you really don't have a hope in hell of finding love. You've heard all the single girl advice: that you have to stay positive and find things that you enjoy about your life. You can't think that a guy is going to swoop in like Prince Charming and save everything. But you still don't know why the search has to be so tough.

6 You're No Longer Jealous Of Couples

When you're newly single, you hate being around couples. You absolutely hate it. You're super jealous of everyone that's kissing, holding hands, and clearly totally in love. You can't believe that these couples are so lucky and that they have found each other when you have the bad luck to be single. You think this way even if you are enjoying being solo. It doesn't matter how much you love your life or how happy you are with the way that everything else is going -- you still think about the fact that you just can't seem to find a decent guy to date. When you're single for a seriously long time, you don't even feel like a green-eyed monster around happy couples anymore. It's like you're immune to thinking that they've found the golden ticket to happiness. You don't know if you'll ever find love, so you might as well stop hoping for it. And that depresses you almost as much as thinking about just how long you've been single. Which is saying a lot.

5 You Have A Long List Of Deal Breakers

Deal breakers are a tricky thing. Some people definitely have them and others don't believe in them. You probably have a long list of deal breakers if you have been single for longer than you thought that you would be. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's not like you refuse to date even the most obviously amazing guys because they don't have the job that you think that your future boyfriend should have or something silly like that. Well, hopefully you don't think that way, because that's being way too picky. Hopefully, you just know that you have to wait for someone that you really have a connection with and can see yourself with. You've been single for long enough that you don't want to give that up for just anyone. And that's actually a really smart way to go. Of course, you're still going to have your moments when you hate being single. That's kind of inevitable.

4 You Wonder About Your Future

When you are in a serious relationship, you tend to think about your future in terms of "we." You still have things that you want to do in your own life, of course, both on a personal and professional level. You just factor your boyfriend into the entire equation because it would not make sense not to. You are committed to this person, after all. When you are single, it's a completely different story. You wonder about your future because you want to plan your own stuff like vacations and career changes… but you also would love to meet someone awesome that you want to share your life with. How much do you plan? How much do you leave to chance? These are not easy questions to answer and chances are, you won't really have any idea. You just have to go with your gut and do what you feel is right.

3 Your Friends Have Stopped Setting You Up

It's almost fun being set up when you're first living the single life. Almost. That's because set ups are never that great. You hope that you will like your aunt's co-worker/your grandma's friend's son/your best friend's brother's old college roommate. Then you get to the bar and you realize that you have nothing in common with this person and you're wondering why you were set up in the first place. It's nothing short of awkward and awful. You know you're really single when your friends and family have stopped setting you up. They've either run out of single men to introduce you to or they know that it's kind of a lost cause because your dating life sucks so much. Yeah, that's a depressing thought, but those are the kind of depressing thoughts that you have when you're single and it looks like you're going to stay that way for a while longer.

2 You're Halfway To Bitter

You're not a bitter person. You're really not. It's just that you know that if you stay single another year or more, you just might become that way. It's just the honest truth and it's a reality that you're going to have to face. You have to fight really hard not to feel super bitter and that's going to be your next project. When your friends and family ask about your dating life, you have to shrug and smile and say that it's not the best but you're trying to stay positive. When you spend another weekend alone and don't have a boyfriend to go to brunch and a movie with, you have to do those things with one of your best friends instead so you don't get too lonely and upset. You just have to make sure that you stay your lovely optimistic self, no matter how much longer you're on your own. And yes, it's going to be really hard.

1 You No Longer Know Why You're Single

The number one sign that you've been single for a really long time? If you no longer know why you're single. Chances are, you ask yourself why you're on your own about a million times a day. Maybe even more. You wonder why your first dates never turn into second ones. You feel a bit insecure at times despite your best efforts to stay confident and positive. You get that at first, you were single because you were in a long-term relationship that didn't work out, and you were okay with that. You knew that your ex-boyfriend wasn't going to be your forever guy and you had a ton of reasons why you two would have never been happy together in the long run. At first, you enjoyed the single life because it can be a lot of fun. There's a sense of freedom involved, after all. But then something happens… and you realize that you no longer know why you're single. Of course, you can't just conjure a boyfriend out of nowhere, so you're probably going to have to hang out with yourself just a little while longer.