I took myself on a solo date at home — 10/10 would recommend

When the weather outside is frightful, sometimes staying inside — alone — is delightful. Okay, so you’re probably probably wondering how I — the queen of extroverts — came to say “ wow! I really just want to stay at home by myself on Friday night”. Here’s how:

It took me most of my adult life to actually spend time with myself, and feel at ease just being alone with my thoughts. For my entire 20s, every weekend was jam packed with social engagement after social engagement. If I wasn’t hosting something, I was planning something, if I wasn’t planning something, I was attending something. I was surrounded by people or preparing to be surrounded by people practically every minute of every day.

My search for alone time started on the floor of my closet. I was a social butterfly who escaped upstairs and lay on my closet floor for 5 minutes doing absolutely nothing, and it was there that I came to find myself not only wanting more alone time, but actually craving it. I realized how desperately I wanted time where I didn’t have to actually do anything: didn’t need to check an item off the list or plan my next day or do anything productive whatsoever. Imagine that! It makes me giggle as I write that now, because everything I was doing had always been “what I wanted to do,” but I guess I forgot somewhere along the way that…