A single's sayonara

In my first column 10 weeks ago, I declared my intentions to write about dating, using the knowledge I learned from my life experiences in an effort to impart my wisdom to the UW community, and maybe score a date.

Instead, I wrote about robot sex, Craigslist no-shows and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles [HTML_REMOVED] not exactly life changing material here.

I'm still single, with no prospect in sight. I'd like to think my lack of dates has to do with the fact that UW men are afraid of dating a famous dating columnist. I really doubt this is the case.

This freaks me out, because when I was a little girl, my mom told me I'd meet my future husband when I went to college. With one week to go, I think this is about as likely as me getting an editing job at Rolling Stone. My mom still asks me why I don't have a serious boyfriend, and I can't help but feel like I've let her down [HTML_REMOVED] like my college degree is somehow incomplete without an accompanying marriage license or a ring, or at least having someone around with a hand that could potentially offer me a ring, someday.

But I'm not alone. Many of my close girl friends are also single, have always been single or aren't concerned that they may remain single for a while. I like to think this is an indication of social change. Little girls are raised on movies like The Little Mermaid, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast. All of these films end with the princess finding her prince, or settling on a beast and having him conveniently morph into a non-deformed-and-hairless version of the wealthy prince he already was.

But endings can still be happy ones without "coupledom." Just because I didn't find my husband in college doesn't mean I'm incomplete, and my college life is coming to a close with me being single and relatively content, most of the time.

One of my friends recently said to me, "You know what, Erin? I admire you for never having a boyfriend. Being single is kind of an art form."

I guess that makes me and other singles out there performance artists. We should all learn some tricks, like fire throwing or lion juggling, and go on a singles circus tour.

Seattle, I bid you adieu, and the last thing I'd like to say is, happiness comes in many different forms. And okay, I get it, life is better when shared with someone you love. But, it's also not so bad if you're alone. So if you're single in Seattle, wondering what's wrong with you, developing low self-esteem and wondering if it's because your feet stink, the fact is that although you're alone in personal status, you're not alone in other single company. So go get 'em. Or don't. Or wash your feet and try again. You're the artist of your own life, and you can design your happy ending however you wish. So take that, Cinderella.

[Reach columnist Erin Hicks at features@thedaily.washington.edu.]