For most of my life, I was always considered outgoing and really friendly. I'm still pretty outgoing and just as friendly but as I get older, the shyer and closed off I find myself becoming. I know that I'm not alone in that aspect either. I love to hang out with my friends and to stay busy and to do a lot of fun things. But staying home and watching Netflix alone, or eating out at a restaurant alone, or basically doing anything alone that I used to do with people, seems so much more appealing.

Sometimes I feel bad for bailing on my friends or telling a little white lie just to stay home and read a book or get caught up on my shows. Sometimes I even ignore texts or phone calls just to get a minute to myself. The truth is, we all need time alone. We all need our space to reflect on our day or in some cases our week. We all want to have some time to collect our thoughts and to relax.

Our lives get so busy, some of us are students with a job or two. Some people are parents and others are athletes. No matter what age, we spend our lives constantly surrounded by people and always doing something. I think that as we get older it becomes so important to take care of ourselves mentally and being able to admit when we've taken on too much.

I've also come to realize how shy I have become in my early adult years. We spend so much time in our circles and amongst the same people throughout our entire school career that when we eventually have to find a job or do things on our own it's so scary.

I still love meeting new people but it takes so much longer for me to open up. We stick with what makes us comfortable and when we become uncomfortable its hard to keep an open mind towards new people, things, and situations.

We all grow and we all change and change isn't necessarily a bad thing. Deciding to spend a night at home alone after a stressful week isn't a bad thing either. Sure, maybe we used to relieve our stress by going to Friday night football games or going shopping with friends but sometimes we need a break. Sometimes we all just need a day to lay in bed and only move to go to the bathroom and get a snack.

We also need to remind ourselves that we're doing awesome in all aspects of life and that one day of nothingness will not kill us. Sometimes taking one day to forget our stress and problems and relax is all we need.

It's also okay to be both super fun and loud and outgoing and to need your space. So don't feel like you're avoiding your friends or spending too much time alone, it's important and they'll understand because they probably need to do the same thing.