In my experience, when people want to get out of the house and have fun, they usually organize group hangouts or make plans with a friend. But sometimes friends are busy, group plans fall apart or you may struggle to make good friends at all. When this happens, a lot of people end up staying home because they are either too socially embarrassed to go out and do things alone or they aren’t sure what fun can be had by themselves. For people in college, especially freshmen, I’m here to tell you that there are actually quite a few things you can and should do by yourself. You shouldn’t let your world revolve around always having someone to do things with.
First off, I want to say that I have never been the kind of person to go out and do things on my own until recently. I would get social anxiety when I was out by myself and always felt out of place and awkward. Then, over the summer while I was home from school, I found that most of my friends were working or volunteering, and so was I. We were all busy, and our free time didn’t align as much as I would have liked. More often than not, I’d have a day off and no one to spend it with. This is when I discovered that simply doing things for myself and by myself had a really positive impact on my overall happiness, confidence, and well-being.
It started small, with trips to the grocery store, going to the park and taking walks. The more times I went out by myself, the more I found that I didn’t feel the need to have someone with me like I used to. I began feeling more confident in myself, and instead of staying home and scrolling through hours of social media, I was getting out of the house and enjoying my free time. Now, I often find myself attending sporting events, trying new foods and exploring unique places on my own.
Things I would recommend doing to start getting accustomed to being out by yourself include thrifting, going for a hike and going to the movies by yourself. These are low-stress but can be a great way to start doing things just for the sake of enjoying yourself. There isn’t a lot of interacting you have to do with other people so it makes it easy to just do your own thing and get comfortable being on your own. Especially for those of you who may be in your freshman year and are struggling to make good friends, I would implore you to do things for your own happiness and you may find that friends can be made along the way. Other things you might look into down the line, could include going to a pottery studio, going to arcade, ice skating or even rock climbing by yourself.
When you start making the most of your free time, you might find that you enjoy your day-to-day life more and stop waiting for a once-a-week hangout to enjoy yourself. Spending time alone doesn’t have to be a bad thing. In fact, it can be both healing and exciting. For those of you who think this is generic or overrated advice, I want you to think about how often you actually go out and do things just for yourself and simply because you want to. It’s probably not very often. So, I recommend you try it before you judge it. You may find that you are a lot better company than you give yourself credit for.