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"Dear Single John, I&amp;#x27;ve always prided myself on being single and independent, and I really do love my life. Lately though, it is getting harder. No exaggeration, I have been to 30-plus weddings in about two years. I received a call today that yet another good friend is getting hitched. I will now be the only single person without kids in my group of friends. I am sad to state that once I got off the phone, I absolutely sobbed for about an hour. How does a single girl cope when she is the last one left standing? --Hadmy Filla Bridezillas (age 29) Thirty weddings in two years? I know ministers and rabbis who have attended fewer&amp;amp;#8212;must be nice to be popular. I&amp;amp;#8217;ve spent the last two hours trying to think of the right metaphorical story&amp;amp;#8212;be it from myth, literature or my own life&amp;amp;#8212;to put the following in context. But after racking my brains for the right story from Virgil or Shakespeare, Pindar or my past, the most telling example I can think of comes from Mathew Weiner, the creator of Mad Men. In a recent episode, an advertising firm hires a psychologist to convene a focus group of young unmarried women, to decide how to market a face cream. After some tears and drama, the psychologist presents her results to Donald Draper, the firm&amp;amp;#8217;s creative director. While the ad firm had suspected that they could prey on a woman&amp;amp;#8217;s desire for indulgence or her vanity, the psychologist&amp;amp;#8217;s results instead indicated that what these young women all really wanted was to get married. Draper discards the results as meaningless and throws them out, along with the shrink. Now, Donald Draper may have his own ideas why marriage was, or should be less important to young women in 1965, but the point here is that marriage isn&amp;amp;#8217;t, and shouldn&amp;amp;#8217;t be, the ball game. While I totally sympathize, I think you have to see these situations realistically&amp;amp;#8212;you haven&amp;amp;#8217;t found the right person yet; would you rather be married to someone who wasn&amp;amp;#8217;t right for you? The follow up question is naturally, &amp;amp;#8220;What if I never find him, or my idea of the right person is different from what is realistic?&amp;amp;#8221; And here, as a 30-year old single guy, I have nothing but empathy. Because the question haunts me too. But I know when things haven&amp;amp;#8217;t been right. I compare dating or staying with someone you&amp;amp;#8217;re not in love with to driving on a road trip and knowing you are going the wrong direction. You might not know the right direction, and you may never find the right road, but the longer you keep driving, the further you are getting from your destination (though, you may find an amazing beach, or Legoland, which may be better than what you were originally looking for, at which point my metaphor falls apart, but well done you!). So, buck up, Ms. Popularity. Stop crying. Stop judging your situation by your friends&amp;amp;#8217;. It&amp;amp;#8217;s natural to be a little bummed, but then it&amp;amp;#8217;s time to look ahead. You have to if you&amp;amp;#8217;re going to figure out where you&amp;amp;#8217;re going. Besides, check out this story by former Single-ish blogger Erin about why it&amp;#x27;s GREAT to be the last single girl standing! Are you surrounded by coupled up friends? Or are you in a couple and happen to be surrounded by single friends? Have a question for Single John? Submit it here. More on Weddings at Glamour.com Why He Hasn&amp;#x27;t Proposed (Yet) The 7 Worst Things You Can Say to a Bride-to-Be What Kind of Bride Are You? Photo: Thinkstock "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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