They say it's different when you have someone to be with. Someone to share your joys. Someone to join you in front of the television after a bad day. Someone to call and tell the good news first. Someone to have dinner celebrations with. Someone to exchange gifts with on Christmas eve. Someone to go to the mall with and window shop.
A lot of people feel that when you don't have someone in your life that you consider as a constant, you're an outcast. Having a partner - serious or not - seems to have become a new trend. Somehow, society has found a way to make single people feel out of place.
When you eat at a restaurant, you see couples. You regret watching a movie at the cinema because you are seated next to a couple who just couldn't seem to stop themselves from touching each other. Your birthday's fast approaching and you feel nothing but depressed because your family's far away and you bet you'll receive nothing but greetings of pity from your fake friends and colleagues. You overhear two women talking about how wasted they were last night while eating brunch at a cafe and you think of how pathetic you are because you weren't at a club getting high and drunk ; instead, you were asleep by 8:30.
Yes, it's depressing. It's terrifying. It's embarrassing to be single - to be alone. But don't you ever think, that maybe, that's only because you're looking at it from the wrong side?
What about the joys of having the bed all to yourself and not worrying about how you look when you wake up in the morning? Is the taste of freshly brewed coffee not enough to make you feel sorry about the two women who would probably feel sick for the rest of the day due to hang-over?
You don't have to go through that awkward process of deciding whether or not you should pay your own bill and look independent/too proud or let him pay and look needy. You don't have to worry about eating too much popcorn because you have it all to yourself anyway. You get to go on a vacation or have a pamper day at the spa or even go home and spend your birthday with the family.
You have full control over the remote. You can order pizza and have it with a beer instead of sitting at a fine dining, sipping from a glass of posh wine. You can go window shop the whole day without worrying if the person with you is having fun, bored, or exhausted. You can spoil yourself with gifts on Christmas and New Year's eve because you deserve it.
Think about all the things you get to enjoy when you're alone. A person doesn't have to feel lonely when he/she is alone. Never fear the word alone because it is very different from lonely. Alone is a state of being and lonely is a feeling - the feeling of someone who has no friends or companions. It doesn't mean though, that you're lonely just because you only have a couple of real friends and no romantic relationships.
When you're alone, it is up to you. You can be alone and lonely, or alone and happy.