Late last week, I ran into this dilemma. As I was walking from the performing arts building I was caught up with talking to my lovely scene partners. I was so enthralled and entertained by our conversation of our embarrassing theatre stories, that I didn’t realize I was walking with them to our dining hall. By the time I had realized where I was, it was too late.Â
The dread of the knowledge that I was at the dining hall with no one to sit with had set in. Should I turn back, or should I stay? Nope, I’m a college student now, I can do this! So, I prepared myself to take a seat in the comfy chairs beside the dull glow of the window. It’s strange, it almost felt like it was this unwanted spotlight on me. I immediately started calling my friends to ask if they would join me, but each one had a different event they were tied up with and the quickest they could come would be in 30 minutes.Â
As I slowly started to descend more into this insecurity, that everyone was looking at and judging me for being by myself I kept thinking. Why am I allowing myself to feel this way? Why am I allowing myself to feel inferior? Because I am alone? Suddenly, I remembered that line from The Princess Diaries, “Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent”. It was as if a switch went off inside my brain. I rolled my shoulders back, straightened my spine, and kept my head up (in all honestly I was also “mewing” a bit).Â
I felt more confident and almost graceful. I felt regal and content. My adoring friends finally did join me, and when I told them what happened they were cooing and saying they were sorry that they weren’t able to come right away, but I reassured them that I felt perfectly fine by the time they arrived, and it’s all thanks to those wise words from The Princess Diaries.