So, are you dating anyone?

If this question isn't coming from a 20-something male who is going to follow up my "no" with a "do you want to go out sometime," I'm not interested in hearing it. Especially if you're a middle-aged woman in my parents' ward who is so far removed from the dating game that she thinks finding a guy is as easy as picking an apple off a tree.

I hate to break it to you, Sister So-and-So: dating SUCKS. It's hard, and even if I were going on more dates (which for me would be one every couple of months), I would still be frustrated and fed up with everything. Just because you were married at 20 doesn't mean I'm an old maid at 24. And it doesn't mean that you have to give me a pitying look every time I answer your annoying question with, "No, not currently."

This is also true for all of my girlfriends whose first question after we haven't seen each other for a while is, "So, are there any boys?" I know girls like to dish about the guys in their lives. I like to do it, too—when I have a guy in my life. But seeing as how I don't often have a guy in my life, I don't want the first thing I say to my girlfriends make me look super lame. Besides—if I have a guy in my life, you won't have to ask me if I have a guy in my life. All you'll have to ask is, "How are you?" and chances are that he'll come up. If you have to ask, there's nothing to tell. I think this is probably true for most girls.

The only thing that makes "So, are you dating anyone?" more annoying is the follow-up of "Why not?" Right, because I have so much control over what men my age do. It's entirely up to me whether someone in my ward notices me and asks me out. It's completely my fault that I haven't found someone I'm compatible with. I alone am to blame for my loneliness. Thanks for that.

To sum up: No, I am not dating anyone, and I don't know why. I am 24. I am single. And I am dealing with it perfectly fine. I don't need to be reminded of my singleness. Believe me, I am acutely aware of it.