Do you like being alone?

     I (along with a lot of other Uni students) lead a pretty busy life. Rushing to get ready for school every morning, 6 hours of classes each day, clubs, cross country practice, homework, spending time with my family. From the moment I emerge from my room each morning to the moment I retreat back into my room for the night, I’m surrounded by people and constantly doing SOMETHING. So as you can probably imagine, being alone in my room doing nothing is one of the few times throughout the day when I’m at peace. Calm. Safe.

    But in the past year or so, it’s started to feel like even my room isn’t as peaceful as it used to be. During peak covid times, I would be in my room all day. Now I’m out and about during most of my waking hours, but when everything was online, being around people and out of the house was a rare treat. I was doing everything -- taking Zoom classes, doing homework, even eating on days when I woke up five minutes before my first class -- in my room.     

    Before long, instead of being my safe place, my room started to feel like a source of stress. I was doing my homework and taking classes there -- my relaxing space and my working space blurred into one. I thought I could avoid that because I have a desk in there, but after a couple weeks I got lazy enough to do my homework in my bed. 

    Sometimes I tried going into a different room for school things, but that never worked because anywhere I went, I was followed by all the chattering from everyone else’s Zoom classes and work meetings. Plus, the only quiet rooms were already occupied by everyone else that had school and work online (which was everyone).

    So here I was, stuck in the same space for every single thing I ever did. I went outside pretty often, but all of the stressful stuff I did went on in my room. A place that was once a source of comfort and safety quickly morphed into one of stress and anxiety. And my time alone, which used to be nice and peaceful, tipped over into being confusing and anxiety-ridden. 

    Of course, that didn’t mean I didn’t get any time to myself without thinking about all of the stressful things going on. It just meant I had to find other ways to relax, and I found different ways to do that. Sometimes it was going for a run or bike ride outside. Or just sitting outside somewhere. It also could be going into a quiet room (when I could find one) and watching TV or something. Really it meant going anywhere besides my room and doing anything besides school.

    I think most people, if not all people, need to be alone sometimes. It’s a good way to step back from everything else and be calm. But “alone time” means different things to different people at different times in their lives.