In high school, it was rare to find me without my friends or my boyfriend. I always made sure that I was surrounded by people. I relied on everyone in my life to accompany me to places I felt uncomfortable going to by myself.

Whether it was the mall, the movies, or even a baseball game, I always made sure I had someone else with me. At the time, I did not realize my co-dependency on other people. I just thought it was normal to always need people to do things with. However, my perspective on this completely changed after I spent some time at college.

Upon starting my first semester at Temple University, I did not realize the major life adjustment of moving to a big city where I was unfamiliar with people and places. I didn't realize, at the time, that I was not going to have any friends when I got to college, and I would have to start fresh with a clean slate.

I was clueless about how to make new friends since I didn't have to make any since high school started, and that was easy because I saw the same people every day there.

Once I finally got settled at Temple, I realized that the first couple of months were not bad at all and I was easily able to make friends.

However, eventually my friends and I had conflicting schedules, and of course, school got in the way resulting in me being on my own for the first time. I ended up staying in more, watching a lot of Netflix, and focusing on my school work. After a little while, it all just became lonely.

I don't exactly remember the very first time I was content doing things by myself. What I do remember is the first time I went to a baseball game by myself because I wanted to see one of my favorite players pitch and my friends thought baseball was boring.

After sitting at the game for a little while, I realized how paranoid I was about everyone judging me for being by myself, yet nobody cared. After a while, I was so enticed by the game that I forgot I was even afraid of being alone in the first place.

Once I got past the first few instances where I did things by myself, I figured out that I don't need to rely on other people to go do things with me. My own company is enough, and there is no reason that I shouldn't do things that make me happy just because other people aren't interested in them.

Since then, I've become a lot more confident and independent. I have done a lot of things I never thought I would do on my own. For me, going places alone and doing things that make me happy is an act of self-care. I get to treat myself and sometimes I've even made friends along the way.

If you don't already do things by yourself, set time apart from your busy schedule to do something you enjoy. Grab a snack, catch a movie, watch a sporting event, attend a concert, go for a walk, or even read a book. Do something that you have always wanted to do.

Go enjoy spending time with yourself and realize how great of a person you truly are. In the end, you're the only person you can really rely on to go do the things that make you happy.