This idea came to me about two months ago while I was eating in my school's dining hall. I looked up from my meal to see that I was one of the only people in the entire dining hall eating alone.
The only one.
Alone.
And I didn't really mind.
Now, I am a people person, but I feel like everyone has days where they do not want to deal with other people or engage in any form of communication. I have these days usually once a week. Sometimes I only talk to my close friends; sometimes I shut out almost everyone.
When I am feeling this particularly antisocial, I need "alone time." This is time to myself, for me to relax and recuperate from the day or the week. This is time to do what I want to do and not worry about other people. I find that these moments are very helpful for me. They allow me to re-center myself and to not feel like I am spiraling out of control. Having a moment alone, whether it's 10 minutes or five hours, is time to spend on helping yourself, be it relaxing from stress or reading a book, or even doing homework.
Personally, I like to have some "alone time" at least once a week. I helps me to relax and unwind from a busy day, and lets me catch up on anything I need to do.
However, too much time to yourself isn't always whats best for you. There are certain times of the year where I become a lot more antisocial and want to be by myself. Too much time to myself causes me to begin to shut out people who mean a lot to me, including my very close friends and my family. This is not a good thing. If this goes on for long enough, you can begin to feel lonely, which is probably one of the worst feelings. You begin to feel like nobody wants to hang out with you and everybody already has plans, so what's the point of trying to make plans? You end up being alone and by yourself because you aren't putting in the effort to spend time with others.
I understand that some people like to be alone, and that's OK. I want to you know that it is OK to be alone. It's OK to be in the dining hall by yourself. It's OK to walk to class alone. It's OK to have some "alone time" to recuperate and relax. Be wary of having too much time by yourself. Being caught in a cycle of alone and loneliness is not fun. Having people around you to pull you out of a lonely funk is very important, so don't push people away. It's OK to be alone sometimes, but spending time with others is very important too.
