I was once pressured into a relationship. I knew deep down that it was not a good time, and I had so many other priorities to focus on, but all of my friends at the time guilt tripped me into it. I fucking folded, and I mean she was great and all, but I didn't like her like that. Next thing you know this girl wants to marry me. What the fuck? 4 months in? Hell nah, I felt like Robin from How I Met Your Mother when Ted said some boggus ass shit like "I think I'm in love with you." get that shit outta here bro. The life expectancy is around 80 years, we're only 20% of the way into this thing, and you're telling me 4 months after meeting me that you're 100% sure you wanna spend the rest of your life with me? Slow down.
Me personally, and especially as a young man with currently little money, it makes zero sense to get into a relationship. I also could casually date or hookup too but I just don't care for that. It's kind of a waste of time if you have zero intention to marry them. So at this point it makes more sense to focus on developing my skillsets and maximizing my earning potential. Once I get further along in that journey then maybe I'll consider it, but my last relationship did the exact opposite of helping me reach my goals. Our friend group would just hang out, spend money, drink alcohol, do brainless fucking activities, idk it was ight but also it was also a big hole in my pocket and even more depressing because it made my goals even further away. My parents could see my situation and they kind of understand where I'm at. But there is still this weird underlying pressure by them and the whole family.
The thing is, the opinions and expectations of others do nothing to serve you. They have the least amount of context of your life, so there is zero reason to hold their opinions in a higher regard than your own.
That being said, I'm not completely opposed to it, I think having a woman by my side would by cool but 99% of them would just distract me from my goals. And there's nothing more depressing for a man than to make zero progress towards his goal.. And hey, there's probably a few girls out there that could actually really help me and we could get there together as a team, but that's pretty rare. For now I know my priorities and I'm gonna stick to them regardless of anyone else's opinion.