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" This is my 949th and last blog post for Glamour. It has been a wild three years, from clubbing in St. Maarten to getting Lyme disease in Nantucket, from celebrating my 30th birthday with 80 girls, to getting dumped and dumped and dumped. (Btw, thanks for the 183 comments you left me the day after Scott left me. We showed him!)There was speed dating and group dating and blind dating and mixer dating and Skype dating. 98% of it was awkward. But fun. There was my indignation at the Match guy who didn&amp;amp;#8217;t remember having dated me. There was my relief when the homely blind date guy was mutually unattracted to me&amp;amp;#133;hey, wait a sec&amp;amp;#8212;! There was making out because I had nothing else to do, and there was getting upset when my bestie became pregnant. There were the times I got on my soapbox about all the things I wish I&amp;#x27;d known at 21, and the things I wish I could tell men. There was my critique of Twilight, and when it was syndicated on Yahoo, 789 commenters heartily disagreed with me. But those posts were my favorites. Even if I didn&amp;amp;#8217;t know what I was talking about. There were discussions about whether single girls should mail out Christmas cards and the debates about whether certain male behaviors should be deemed selfish or just inherently guyish. There was gossiping about the Bachelors and Bachelorettes, from DeAnna Pappas to Ashley Hebert. There was an interview with The Millionaire Matchmaker and one with Tough Love&amp;amp;#8217;s Steve Ward. There was Kathie Lee. There was Kiptyn. There was Maya Angelou at Glamour&amp;#x27;s Women of the Year Awards 2009 saying, &amp;amp;#8220;I am a good daughter, a good wife, and a good sister&amp;amp;#133;to men who value me.&amp;amp;#8221; There was me being recognized in the most unfabulous of places: on the NYC subway, in a crummy diner eating by myself, in an impossibly advanced ballet class (struggling), and in line for a Greyhound bus at Port Authority. There were kind words from you. There were all those times I wondered about turning 30, moving home&amp;amp;#133;and the times I needed a good cry. There were times when it seemed the only things my friends talked about were giving birth and buying station wagons. There were times I put stickers on blog photos. Through it all, I learned a few things. If you&amp;amp;#8217;re feeling lonely or bummed, list the reasons you enjoy being single, or what you&amp;amp;#8217;d like to do before you settle down. If you need to practice thinking positively, give yourself an attitude adjustment and then start an upbeat, daily blog about being single&amp;amp;#8212;that&amp;amp;#8217;s an exercise! Listen to your gut instincts. Women are taught to be patient and accepting and polite and understanding and to say &amp;quot;sorry.&amp;quot; We give people the benefit of the doubt. But if you secretly know things could be better, that your guy could stand to call more, or that your friends are being treated with way more respect in their relationships, start thinking about peace-ing out of your own relationship. If you compromise and don&amp;amp;#8217;t voice what it is you want, you&amp;amp;#8217;re basically admitting that the guy&amp;amp;#8217;s needs are more important than yours. But don&amp;amp;#8217;t worry too much about authorship in your own romantic narrative. Everything runs its course and you&amp;amp;#8217;ll be able to handle it when it ends. Trust me. Be happy. Men like happy women. Don&amp;amp;#8217;t show up to a blind date already drunk; do not order two martinis at the Carlyle. You&amp;#x27;ll wake up with one shoe on. Learn how to cook. Or make beer. Find a hobby. Be interesting. And truly get engrossed. Don&amp;amp;#8217;t be afraid to be single. It&amp;amp;#8217;s fun, healthy, and good for you. Timing is everything. We see what we want to see. Don&amp;amp;#8217;t blame yourself for all the delusions. Anyway, guys are pretty good actors. You are human. You are beautiful. You are deserving. You should receive one compliment a day. You should be touched 11 times a day. (These are just my theories.) You shall have everything you want. I wish you the very best. Now, [trumpet sounds] to go out and find what I know we all deserve. This is why I am hanging up my hat. I&amp;#x27;m going to devote more time to family, friends, and boys. But I will be commenting on the blogs. I will be on Twitter and on my Adultlescence blog. Do say hello. And thank you for all your awesome comments last Friday...and every weekday since July 2008. Keep me posted on your progress&amp;amp;#8212;inner or outer&amp;amp;#8212;and milestones, dating, career, or otherwise. I believe in you and all of us. It has been an absolute pleasure, and thank you for the ongoing conversation! It&amp;#x27;s been fun talking about boys with you! I&amp;amp;#8217;ve learned so much. Love, Erin Meanley More Ways to Get Glamour: NEW! Now You Can Read Glamour on Flipboard! Visit ShopGlamour.com for cute stuff starting at just $10! Download Glamour Magazine for your iPad&amp;amp;#8212;print subscribers, it&amp;amp;#8217;s now part of your subscription plan! Enter the latest Glamour sweepstakes! Follow us on Twitter. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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