I'll never forget my first year in college I spent living on my own.And I'm not talking "on my own" as in my own bedroom with a bunch of roommates or a plush apartment financed by my parent.I'm talking completely, totally, 100 percent on my own.
During my junior year of college, I rented a teeny,
tiny one-room near my university's campus, so cramped I
had to set my mini-TV stolen from a friend on top of my wood and so small
I could practically make an omelet from my bed. But I decided that the price of experiencing true freedom was worth a few extra bucks.I relished, for the
first and only time in my life, a moment spent answering only to myself.Lazy mornings spent
reading to my heart's content? Absolutely.
And while I think that the selflessness and love of marriage is beautiful and worthy, I also think that there is an inherent beauty in respecting yourself first with the gift of independence .Granted, that gift of solo time doesn't have to take long — my lonely sojourn was a mere six weeks — but I learned the value of giving myself time to meet my own needs, dream, and find my passions. There is just something about true independence that can only be found by experiencing living completely on your own.
Live solo? You’re not alone. Recently released census data shows that 31 million people live by their lonesome—that’s a jump of 4 million since 2000. That means that over a quarter of people live on their own. Taking the current state of the economy into consideration, those figures are even more astonishing.Unfortunately, it’s not all upbeat: A growing body of research shows that people who live by themselves may be at a higher risk for depression and alcoholism. Do these studies mean that you should post a roommate ad on Craigslist, pronto? Not exactly.
The research findings can be scary, but that doesn’t mean that being a single-dweller means you’re doomed to be unhappy, isolated, alcoholic, or depressed.
Eric Klinenberg, PhD, author of Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise And Surprising Appeal Of Living Alone, found that living alone is not only more popular than it’s been in the past, it can be beneficial too. “There’s evidence that people who live alone enjoy better mental health than unmarried people who live with others,” he says. Plus people who have a space all to themselves often have a more robust social lives than their married counterparts.
Sharing one of the things on my mind today. My hands on in this, is very minimal,but its worth the share.