Having been both married for 21 years and single for ten years until recently, there is a different level of maturity required for each state. Married or partnered people must consider the other person, they are walking a path together. They have twice as many decisions to make, financial support to work for, even more if they decide to have children. If you don’t work on maturity as a partnered person, your relationship will ultimately fail. Yes, there is reciprocity, but it shouldn’t occur while also ‘keeping score’. On the other hand, single people are generally viewed as less successful, because we’ve decided in addition to a certain level of financial attainment, that landing and keeping a relationship is a marker of success and worthiness. Sometimes being single was easier for me, no one to consider, I could take more risks, make choices more quickly. Sometimes being partnered is easier, you can divide and conquer, you have someone (hopefully) that understands you, to talk through the challenges. Neither is better, they’re simply different. I’ve seen a lot of married people who are unhappy and I’ve seen a lot of single people who are also unhappy. I’ve seen some married people who love being married and I’ve seen some single people who love being single. Each person should do what makes them happy and mostly, we should stop competing with each other for who’s better…