The majority of my post-grad journey has been spent alone. Some days this bothers me, making me homesick or nostalgic for a bustling college campus. But most days, well … I love it. I know the song goes “One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do,” but I beg to differ – it’s one of the most liberating things that you’ll ever do.

I rarely had alone time in college. If I wasn’t spending time on campus, I was hanging out with my boyfriend. When I wasn’t in class with the same people semester after semester, I was sitting with those same people in the dining hall. After four years of residential dorm room living, I couldn’t even shower and sh*t alone without someone else being in the bathroom brushing their teeth or shaving their legs.

Do you know how nice it is to be alone? It feels amazing, especially when I can get lost in a crowd and do what I want, on my own time. I can go to the grocery store and run errands at Target, and instead of driving a gaggle of other people and working around their class schedules, I can just go by myself when I want! Oh and my favorite: going to the movies alone. I can see what I want, sit where I want, get some candy from the concession stand and not have to share it (sorry, I like to keep my Snowcaps to myself), and I don’t have to deal with the picking and choosing of what to see amongst other people. Also, maybe Jake Gyllenhaal and I want some time to ourselves, ya know? Read More »

The other night, while eating dinner with a friend at one of the 4874 Thai restaurants in my neighborhood, we got into a discussion about being single.

“I’ve decided that deep down, no girl really wants to be alone,” my friend announced as she cut into her spring rolls. “Even if she says she doesn’t want a boyfriend, if the right guy stepped into her life, she’d take him.”

“What about So-And-So?” I asked, naming another mutual friend. “She kept saying how happy she was without a guy, and how she was too busy anyway. She seemed fine.”

“Didn’t you hear? Last month she landed a dude.” My friend handed me half of her spring roll, using the other half to point in my direction. “She bumped into this guy at a party and two weeks later she was updating her Facebook status to read So-And-So is totally in love.”

“Ew. Really?” Inwardly, I was jealous. When was the last time I had updated my Facebook status to say I was totally in love? Never, I realized, since the last time I was in love, Facebook hadn’t even been invented.

“Really.” My friend declared. “Us women all need to face the fact that being single just isn’t our natural stasis.” Read More »