/feels/ - Advice & Venting

I have always wanted to be the kind of person who is independent (not just in a financial kind of way but in the sense of being able to meet my own needs and not crumbling under outside pressure) and who finds genuine fulfillment in her passions without needing some guy's stamp of approval to feel worthy, but it's so easy to fall into bitterness and self-pity. I wonder if all this time I've been deluding myself or if somehow through a more radical kind of mindset shift and more effort I could be happy despite the fact that the world is built for couples