8 characters who’d have been so much happier if they just stayed single!

From Ross to Carrie, pop culture’s favorite romantics and their chaotic love stories prove that sometimes one should just learn the art of how to be single!

Falling in love isn’t as complicated as we make it out to be, in fact, it’s probably the easiest part. Once you find that person, your person, things seem clearer. But the real challenge lies in learning how to not need love, especially when you’re not yet ready to receive it. And it's an even a bigger challenge, as we live in a world that sells us the idea that happiness begins and ends with a soulmate. The art of being single is not just criminally underrated but an invisible thought. And it’s not like pop culture has helped much either in this case! From Ross Geller, Carrie Bradshaw to Emily Cooper and Ted Mosby, our screens are full of people who’d rather chase dysfunctional relationships to fix whatever is wrong with them than discover the joy of their own company. So imagine if these characters paused between heartbreaks, reflected a little, maybe went to therapy or just took a solo vacation! They might have realized that the love they’ve been desperately searching for is not hiding in another person, but somewhere within themselves.

Also Read:In ode to 60 years of the man who, for over three decades, has been the very definition of romance - Shah Rukh Khan!

Here's a list of characters who’d have been better off if they’d just learned the fine art of being single, not lonely or bitter, just blissfully self-aware!

Carrie Bradshaw - Sex and the City 

Carrie Bradshaw made a living writing about love, yet somehow managed to understand it the least. For her, heartbreak was a lifestyle, chaos was couture, and Mr. Big was an addiction she just couldn’t quit. She spent years mistaking emotional roller coasters for connection, when all she really needed was to fall in love with herself and her amazingly cosy and beautiful apartment. Thankfully, something she finally understood in And Just Like That… as she embraces solitude with as much glamour as her Manolos realizing that sometimes, the city is the only soulmate you need.

Ross Geller - Friends

Ross Geller is what happens when attachment issues get a PhD. His relentless pursuit of love and of course Rachel feels less like romance and more like emotional claustrophobia. He’s constantly in need of validation, so much so that every breakup turns into a world ending personal crisis. Maybe if Ross took a moment to process his emotions instead of explaining them like fossils in a museum, he’d realize that being single isn’t extinction, it’s evolution.

Emily Cooper - Emily in Paris

Emily treats relationships the same way she approaches her job in social media marketing, like Instagram filters that are cute, fleeting, and completely aesthetic-driven. Her idea of love is more about content than connection and tbh, whose isn’t these days? But between juggling men, chasing a dream job, and never quite learning French, Emily is perpetually stuck in the honeymoon phase of her own chaos. If she spent even one season truly single, she might realise that the only chaos is in her head, and the only validation that matters is her own.

Joe Goldberg - You

Joe Goldberg is proof that love can go from butterflies to body bags if left unchecked. His obsession with “saving” the women he loves is really just narcissism in disguise. But that isn’t his only problem as he believes he just hasn’t found the right partner, when in reality, he just hasn't realized that being alone isn’t the worst fate possible. If only he’d spent less time stalking and more time in therapy, he might’ve discovered self-awareness instead of murder. But being single, in Joe’s case, is more than self-care, it’s a public service as there'd be fewer dead bodies!

Anastasia Steele - Fifty Shades of Grey

Sweet, naïve Anastasia Steele walked straight into a billionaire’s traumatic life and called it love. What she mistook for passion was really control dressed in grey silk. Ana keeps trying to fix Christian who doesn't even think there is a problem with him, instead of realizing that emotional pain isn’t exactly foreplay, it’s just a red flag! Only if she’d taken a step back, set a few boundaries (and yes, ghosted him once or twice), she might’ve learned that self-respect is the real power move. Because honestly, self-discovery is way sexier than submission, woman!

Ted Mosby - How I Met Your Mother

Ted’s desperate quest for “The One” could fuel a hundred rom-coms. Every date is a potential life partner, every heartbreak is a Greek tragedy, making Ted's idea of love so idealistic that it borders on delusional. Maybe if he’d spent less time chasing destiny and more time living in the moment, he’d have realized that sometimes the one that you’re meant to find is ultimately you. Until then, he’s just another man who is incapable of being alone, and hence is in love with the idea of co-dependent love!

Bridget Jones - Bridget Jones Diary

Bridget is chaotic, clumsy, and utterly relatable but also hopelessly convinced that she’s incomplete without a man. She ties her happiness to external validation, believing that being single equals failure. Her charm lies in her flaws, but so does her tragedy as she doesn’t see that she’s already the main character. If only Bridget put as much energy into loving herself as she did into calorie counting and romantic daydreaming, she’d realize she’s her own happy ending.

Tom Hansen - 500 Days of Summer

The poster boy for romantic projection, the one who got rejected. Tom doesn’t fall in love with Summer, he falls in love at her. Every glance, every smile, becomes an audition for his fantasy version of love. His heartbreak wasn’t because she didn’t love him back, but because he never really saw her beyond his own assumptions. If Tom had spent a little more time learning to love solitude instead of soulmates, he might’ve realized that sometimes “the one you missed" is you!

Pop culture has long glorified grand gestures! Whether it is the chases, the confessions in the rain, or the makeups after dramatic fallouts, what it rarely celebrates is the quiet power of solitude, the kind of peace that comes from knowing you’re whole without someone else. As being single isn’t a waiting room for love; it’s a masterclass in self-respect, creativity, and freedom. Because here’s the truth - sometimes, the most romantic thing you can do isn’t to fall in love, it's to stay single long enough to understand yourself. To realize that you don’t need to be half of a pair to be whole.

To every Ross, Carrie, Tom, Emily, Ted and Bridget out there - maybe it’s time to put down the phone, delete your ex’s number, and stop mistaking chaos for connection. The art of being single isn’t about being alone, it’s about finally being enough! 

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