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Cate Denial's avatar

One of the greatest joys of living alone, for me, is to think of my great-great grandmothers (and further back than that) who were constantly surrounded by noise, and required by circumstance and custom and law to acquire a husband and raise large numbers of children. I'm single by choice; I live alone; I have a career; I have a lovely home. I am living a life they could only have dreamed about, and I am so, so grateful for it.

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Micheline Maynard's avatar

I used to be an extremely social person, the one that got the group together. Then, I ran into reluctance. Some friends had kids. Some had limited free time, and wouldn’t commit to a date until closer in. Some would commit and then cancel at the last minute. For a while, I took it very personally: they didn’t just have a conflict, they were rejecting me! Then, I decided to flip my viewpoint. I would do things I really wanted to do. If I mentioned it and someone said they wanted to come, they were welcome, but I would go, regardless of whether I had a date.

I got used to doing things alone - movies, restaurants, concerts, book events - I’ve even bought season baseball tickets alone. Sometimes, when you do things alone, you actually meet other people who enjoy what you like to do. And you end up with company after all.

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