bakit wala kang bf?!

I want to post this again! Last week, my sorority sisters had a get-together and the 'question-that-shouldn't-be-asked' was asked time and again. Tsk tsk! (Haven't migrated posts from my old site yet. so I'm simply reposting.)  

Almost everyone seems to ask if I have a boyfriend already. And of course everytime I just blankly say no, they pop-up my most dreaded and most insulting question of all time: Bakit?!

Every time my maternal-side family gets together the subject of ridicule is my 30-year-old uncle who is single. He had a girlfriend and they were nearing the marriage point but because of some circumstances which he shared only to me and my brother Clyde, they broke up. Now he is in Australia. Gawd! He is barely a year in a foreign land, and considering what he has gone through living the real deal alone, I must say that I'm proud because he is doing a great job there yet our family thinks that he isn't complete yet and should be in a relationship soon to be happy. Of course since he isn't here to defend himself, I defend for him. I don't want my younger cousins to have an impression that having a relationship should be one's ultimate goal. (Though that is always debatable. I don't have anything against those who has made relationships their comfort blanket. I have tons of friends who are like that but that just isn't my idea of full happiness now.) And so the limelight turns to me and they bombard me with questions. Kelan mo ba ipapakilala ang boyfriend mo? Kelan ka ba magboboyfriend? Bakit ba wala kang boyfriend?

Of course my answer will always be delivered jokingly. E kung nabibili lang ba yan e di matagal na ko nakabili. Jokingly yet I mean it. Always. You see, Beng and I had this discussion about how our families always question our being single. Our conclusion: Kung nada-download yan e di baka di lang isa ang nadownload ko. I just wish I can deliver the same answer everytime my mom's friends ask me the question so i can enlighten their narrow thinking.

Most parents restrict their children to have relationships while still studying and yet right after graduation people ask you about introducing your boyfriend like earning a diploma entitles you to a bonus boyfriend. To them who ask me these unspeakable questions, I know they just wish me well and they just want me to realize that being in a relationship is a happy thing. Don't they think I already know that. I am happy for them that they are in relationships but can't they just be happy that I AM HAPPY already even if I am single. (Much more I hope when I am in a relationship but that again is always debatable. What applies to Juan does not always apply to Pedro.)

It's not that I have anything against relationships or I've become a lesbian. Hell no! I want one someday. That give-you-the-last-piece-of-cheesecake feeling. It's just that it's not in my priorities and we can say that I am yet to be prioritized by it.

Anyway, given that I end up not marrying at all, I still think that that isn't the worst thing that can happen to a person. Statistics show a large proportion of failed marriages anyway. What I'm saying is a man isn't a ticket to happiness. I am single. Deal with it!