Society and the Single Girl: When Is Someone Interested?

I can honestly say that when it comes to love and relationships, I lack the knowledge to "seal the deal." The deal being getting someone into the Facebook official relationship where they are your boyfriend, girlfriend or significant other.
I think the struggle comes from the fear of being wrong. I've been rejected so many times through out my years of high school dating. (Pretty much my freshman through junior years.) And when you assume things, well you guys have heard the saying. Whenever I asked someone if they liked me, I remember the intense awkwardness and nothing was the same ever again. Of course, I wanted to maintain a friendship with the guy, however, it just never happened.
As I enter my last year in college, I'm realizing the reason why I am single is because I never take that leaps I did when I was younger. I'm too afraid to ask someone how they feel about me, because I am worried that they will reject me. Sad, but true. I worry someone may or may not be flirting with me, and whether or not I'm taking something that may not be flirting as flirting. This sentence was as complicated as my feelings are.
The thing about dating is finding the courage to tell someone how we really feel. That's my biggest struggle. I know how to ask for a job, and to annoy the people involved until they give it to me. But dating is a completely different ballgame. How do I let someone know I'm interested without coming off as too obvious or too desperate? How do I get the nerve to tell someone how I feel without coming off as an idiot?
This is when real life and romantic comedies diverge. In a romantic comedy, the cute dark haired stranger who takes you to Dublin is your soulmate. Or in a romantic comedy, you fall in love with a cute dance instructor. In real life, someone whose attractive in your class who asks you about the readings may just be interested in being your friend. Or, someone whose meant to be with you may not be for whatever reason.
The last time I was in a relationship was when I was about 15 years old. I didn't know much about relationships other than I should have one and that Bella Swan was a good role model to have. Let me say at 21, I have grown from that concept of love. I want to be with someone whose my partner. I want to be with someone who supports me, my aspirations and dreams. I want to be with someone liberal, who will accept the fact my closest friend is queer.
The thing is? I don't know how to get there. I don't know how to ask someone out. I know how to ask someone to hang out, but then I worry if it's a hanging session between friends or an actual date. Maybe the take home lesson is to take more chances, to vocalize your feelings and to maybe stop watching so much Netflix over the weekend. Where is my Prince Charming? Why can't he just magically appear out of the wood work and help me avoid this guessing game. 

Society and the Single Girl-What Do You Want?

As a single girl, I do a lot of complaining. I complain when I can't find a guy. I complain when I find a guy and there is some sort of fault with him, such as him being too creepy. Then I complain when I meet a nice guy and there's no spark. I even complain when there's a guy that there is a spark with. My question is, what do I want? Or, what can I do to not complain anymore.

I have a friend. For privacy's sake let's call her Jane Doe. Jane is single like me and it doesn't help that we both are awkward. Jane met a guy named Tom. Tom asked her something creepy which I will not name here and now she's doubting everything about the relationship. The bottom line, we complain when we're single and we complain when we're not single. 

I question how much we know what we actually want in life. We need a compass, because we are extremely lost in this life. For those who have said for those who have wandered are not lost truly meant it. We don't know what we want. In careers, in relationships, and in general. However, with that being said, there's something that I want to know. 

Do we complain because we don't know what we want? And for that matter, do we even know what we want? Is this why women are getting married later and later in life? Get the secure career first, then the white picket fence. 

I wonder what if I will ever know what I want. And most importantly, I will wonder whether or not I will actually get what I want. 

The Smiths said "Please please please let me let me get what I want." But, what if you don't know what you want? Is it that simple?

Society and the Single Girl-Lose Yourself

One thing that will always baffle me is the fact that some people feel the need to stay with someone whose not good for them. Someone who we love, but we are too blinded to see that they really don't love us back. But that doesn't matter. They still treat us badly, and we still enable it by giving them the cookies. But my question is why?

I believe that a relationship is something that is mutual. Both parties have to love each other with great love. Also, one can argue that both people have to respect another. I think it goes deeper than just saying 'I love you'. You can say that to just about anyone. You have to show it to someone too. You have to be able to say that they make you happy more times than they make you sad. Otherwise, that's not the point of them. They shouldn't be sucking, and they shouldn't feel like a full time job. I understand that sometimes things can be hard for both of you. But if you're not happy all of the time, than I believe that can lead to becoming such a huge problem.
I've seen friends of mine either currently in this pattern or previously in this pattern. I've watched them, and I've never lost so much respect for them. Their focus is on their other person. While this was happening, I would notice one that they've become so depressed, and so reliant on happiness on their boyfriends.
I think that there's some loves that can be as toxic as smoking a cigarette. They are bad for you, so they suck your soul and leave you gasping for more. That's when you lose yourself, at the expense of keeping someone else. You begin to morph into a robot that caters solely to them, and your happiness is behind theirs. Your goals? Gone. Friends? Well, they've gotten tired of you only being there whenever he's not around. Basically, you've become eclipsed into a world that solely is your boyfriend/significant other.
As a person who really hasn't experienced relationships, I wonder if that's something that happens to everyone or a select few. I have so much going on. I don't even understand how someone can do that. My life is balanced carefully, between friends, responsibilities such as school and work, and activities that truly make ME happy. I don't ever want to give it up. If you do, I think that's the point when the relationship as either reached the point of no return. You have to be you, whether you're just friends, or in a relationship with him. Otherwise, you would be lying to yourself, and you would be lying to the other person. I don't know about you, but I don't want to live a lie.
I don't ever want to lose myself at the expense at keeping someone else. I don't ever want to live a lie to make someone else happy with me. If you're in a relationship with me, than you're going to like me for what I bring to the table, not what you bring to the table. After all, who wants to be with someone whose becoming a zombie whose obsessed with them. But most of all what I want in a relationship, in addition to what I think that everyone should want in one is to be happy.