There comes a time in your life when you are ready to make the leap or maybe forced into it. Shortly you find yourself in a studio apartment with hardly any space to turn 360 degrees. Homesickness prevails and you miss your friends. But soon you see a change in yourself and find that being alone is highly underrated. You can take your time with things or abandon them completely. You can get obsessed with internet prodigies and suddenly there is more to life.
In the end you stumble upon a simple fact: Living alone begins as an experiment until it becomes a way of life. It heightens your potential as a person, brings out the best that you can be and this is why you should be part of this experiment at least once in your life. Here are 30 reasons why you should live alone at least once in your lifetime.
#1 After years and years of living in a home, hostel, PG or an apartment with friends, you have finally arrived. This is your moment.
#2 You have spent time, money, effort and resources in looking for and finding your perfect but not-so-perfect space. This decision itself is highly self-validating.
#3 While sometimes you are dejected and thinking that you are friendless and alone, there are other times when you know that you are taking life by its metaphorical horns.
#4 This period of your life becomes a self-discovery. You become comfortable in your skin. Which also means—literally, no pants.
#5 FREEDOM. In the real sense. Don’t need no permission. You can eat Maggi every single day for every single meal.
#6 Which you won’t. Because with independence comes responsibility. You know that there won’t be hot soup waiting for you when you fall ill.
#7 You will start taking better care of yourself. Detox weeks and liquid diets to be healthy and save money.
#8 It is really good practice in case you end up being alone. Alone will never be the same as lonely.
#9 You will fluctuate between staying in every weekend and berating your lack of social life. And you can safely avoid the people that you want to avoid.
#10 You will have a drawer full of menus and pamphlets. Procuring food will take up majority of your waking and sleeping time.
#11 This space earns you the right to let go and try out some of those ridiculous dance moves. Only you can judge yourself.
#12 You will spend an unnecessarily futile amount of time deciding the precise kind of lamp for that bedside table. And be proud of your choice by the end of it.
#13 You will start talking to yourself. Then you will get a plant to sound less creepy to yourself. In your defence, plants can feel alone too.
#14 Thrift stores and hand-me-downs will hold a special place in your life. We are twenty-somethings. Let us accept the fact that we are going to be broke for the next decade.
#15 While you will be proud of how you don’t need another person to fulfill you, 80 per cent of your time will be spent on facebook.
#16 When you hear a noise in the middle of the night, you will know exactly where your pepper spray is and how you will use it. Constant Vigilance.
#17 Apart from ghosts, you will be able to deal with your worst nightmares efficiently. Yes. I am talking about insects.
#18 You can invite people over purely to show them how well you are doing. And have impromptu pizza and wine get-togethers.
#19 Significant Others will adore you a little bit more for providing the space for your shenanigans.
#20 You will become proficient in washing. Washing clothes, utensils and any and every flat surface that gets covered in dust seemingly every ten minutes.
#21 You are your own best friend and worst enemy simultaneously. Maybe the two day old pasta wasn’t such a good idea.
#22 You can have varied emotional outbursts of anger, sorrow, happiness and all-round PMS unabashedly.
#23 You don’t have to be prim and proper. You can shovel things into your mouth grossly or not wash out the grime from your hair every two days.
#24 You will realize that you have too many things. Simplicity shall be key.
#25 You’ll start saving. Especially for that plush rug that costs a bomb.
#26 You can be as loud as you want. But you will think about others and tone it down a notch. Welcome Maturity!
#27 If you have always had a problem with siblings mooching off your stuff or your friends picking up your favourite top, then finally, your things are your own. No, sharing is not caring.
#28 You shall have time to think. Oscillating between crazy theories, introspection and over thinking, you will create and solve problems without batting an eyelid.
#29 You can be who you are, discover your passions and hold on to the things that matter the most to you. For instance, cats.
#30 Finally, living on your own teaches you one lesson for your life: For anything that happens, the responsibility lies only with you and the achievement is solely yours.