Contrary to popular belief, living alone is fun—once you’ve gotten over the usual obstacles. Even then, you can solve these problems with a little creativity. Think about the end scene in How to Be Single (2016). The leading character figures out how to zip a dress on her own, among many things. Although her creativity came with a lot of building and mechanics, she got the job done.
In real life, though, living on your own has a lot of pros about taking control of your own life. When you don’t have to think about another person’s routine or how they want their toilet paper, you have a lot of time and energy to exert for your growth.
You’ll have a lot of time for introspection.
Spending time alone gives way for more self-reflection. There might be things in life that you need to take a moment to think. Perhaps, there’s a massive decision for your career that needs careful weighing of pros and cons. Knowing yourself to the deepest and darkest levels gives you a kind of strength that other people can’t strip away from you.
Additionally, alone time helps people focus and sparks their creativity. For instance, Shakespeare wrote King Lear while he was in quarantine. If you have backlogs, a work area devoid of external distractions like friends’ gossip or social media can help expedite your work.
You have control over your life.
Of course, too much alone time is detrimental to both your mental and physical health, so going out and participating in recreational activities is necessary. People who live on their own take on new hobbies and classes, volunteer more, and attend lectures, compared to those who live with their husbands or wives. Because they participate more in society, they meet more people and create a community, developing strong relationships aside from the exclusivity brought by family and romantic relationships.
Since there are so many things you can do and people you can get to know, loneliness is mostly out of the question. You can also hang out on the sofa, watching your favorite shows the whole day without anyone telling you off for being unproductive.
You can survive being alone.
People grow up with everyone practically telling us that they need a companion to survive. Fairytales know this to be true because, without a prince, a princess will be dead. There’s also the very deeply inculcated culture of marriage that they paint as every person’s goal and the best thing that could happen to anyone ever.
In the current times, this may no longer be the truth. A report found that 25% of millennials don’t see themselves getting married because they think that “society is just as well off if people have priorities other than marriage and children.” Maybe a better goal would be earning enough to afford a condominium for sale in Quezon City.
Learning how to survive on your own is a difficult task. It involves a lot of self-questioning, confidence, and control to bring this to fruition. However, once you’ve gotten the hang of it, you might not need a savior with a crown, after all.
