24 and Still a Virgin!

We had a braai (that is South African for BBQ) with some of the women from the office at the center I was at in South Africa, and it was tons of fun.  The weather was beautiful and the company was pleasant.  And of course, we had to comment on my love life because it is apparently pretty fascinating and freakish to the South Africans.

People in South Africa found it very hard to believe that I am single.  The reason being that I am 24, so I should clearly be in a relationship and popping out kids by now.  Never mind there are things that I want to do and having a guy around would probably prevent me from doing them.  (Seriously, who would want to wait around for me while I am off doing all the things I want to do?)  But that is not the way things are in South Africa, especially a South African township.  Women are expected to want (and actually want) to have kids and a family, and they don’t waste any time getting started on it. 

The whole time I was in South Africa, people would ask me questions about why I was single and why I didn’t have or want kids.  My answers were that nobody wants to date a girl going around the world doing stuff and isn’t entirely sure what she is doing with her life.  And my answer to not wanting kids was that they are a lot of responsibility and I am too selfish to take care of a child for any extended period of time. 

So, back to the braai and the reason for this blog title: we were sitting around talking about how I am single, and one of the women randomly shouted, “24 and still a virgin!  Yo!”  (“Yo” is something they would always say when they were surprised or frustrated with something.)  I just kind of laughed and let them going on talking about my love life.  About 5 minutes later, the conversation had moved on to my sleeping habits.  The person I was sharing a room with told everyone that I don’t really sleep in, no matter what time I go to bed.  I was told that if I found a boyfriend I would stay in bed and sleep more.  As soon as I find a boyfriend, I will let you all know how this theory works out.