Hello universe,

I'm about to say something that may shock you and a great deal of people that I know.

I'm independent. You read correctly - the girl who likes being with people and likes going out with her friends, even if that means going to Rite Aid to buy floss, is independent. We all know those people who say "Go out and have an adventure by yourself! Be independent!" but errands with friends are always going to be infinitely more fun than cruising the food isles solo. Who else will convince you to get the Milano cookies or tell you to buy a whole chicken because it's on sale for $4.95? Not me, myself, and I, I'll tell you that much. But if "being alone" is how people define independence, can I no longer say that I am? I like my friends and doing things with them so much that one time a friend of mine stopped me and said, "Elyse, you're so dependent."

And that was like a slap in the face. I took a minute, jaw literally hanging open at the total impossibly false misconception of me, and if I wasn't so shocked and initially hurt, my palms would be twitching. That moment is forever engraved in my mind and later cemented itself as my ultimate pet peeve: people who tell you "who you are" as if they know you better than you know yourself. But we hadn't gotten that far yet. In that moment, all I could think about was how could someone who I thought knew me so well, turn out to not know me at all? How could she not see the woman I saw?

Tell 'em Tina. Dependent is the last thing I wanted to be, the last thing I saw myself as, and the last thing anybody should be. We should all be able to stand on our own. Newsflash people: you can be independent and still like hanging out with your friends and having bouts of indecision at times. I don't like eating at Chipotle alone because yes, I like conversation in between bites, but that doesn't mean I'm automatically dependent. Just because I like walking to the bookstore or the library with my friends doesn't make me dependent. Some synonyms of independent for you - free, individualistic, bold, unrestrained.

So yes, I'm independent, in case you skipped over my previous declarations.

And although there's times after class when I give in to wistful desire and walk the long way back to my apartment to catch a sunset over a big city and sprawling ocean (see, independent right?), I'll still choose to do things with my friends if given the chance. And that doesn't make me, nor you, any less of an independent person than the next girl who likes to do those things alone.