I found myself waking up once again, at an hour I would prefer not to mention, after a fun night out for my friend’s birthday. I looked at my phone as one does when they wake up. No enticing messages. I sent out a few “What are you doing?” messages to see where everyone was and if they wanted to get a meal and do some shopping with me. “Already ate. Sorryy,” read one of the messages. “Understandable,” I thought. It wasn’t like it was 8 a.m. or anything.
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“Alright,” I thought to myself. “Let’s go.” I didn’t want to deal with any complaints or time restraints from any other people, so I decided to take myself out. I would go to Newbury Street, pick any restaurant I thought looked cute, and go in. Needless to say, this was the first time I was going out to a legitimate restaurant alone, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. Would I be bored? Who knows.
I got ready, threw on a pair of oversized Roberto Cavalli sunglasses that I adored, spritzed some Hermes ‘Jour d’Hermes’ on, and bounced out the door. As I approached Newbury Street, I saw this restaurant I had always wanted to try whenever I would pass it with my friends, but we had never gone in because it didn’t seem their style in terms of pricing and ambience. This was my time. I walked in, looked the host in eye and said “Just me today.” He smiled and offered me a seat at the bar or a table. I took the table.
As I walked over, I noticed this other woman in her twenties doing the same thing and instantly felt more at ease about this decision. I sat down and after exchanging some witty banter with the most adorable waiter ever (an older Brazilian gentleman, in case you were wondering), I ordered myself an unsweetened iced tea as I perused the menu. Instantly I knew this was a great idea. I felt so at ease. No one else to make room for, I had the whole table to myself, no one to consider when I ordered, it was all about me. The waiter came back and I ordered my entrée. I pulled out my phone, and began reading a Vogue article I hadn’t had time to earlier in the week. I’m going to do this every week, I thought to myself. I looked up from my article expecting to see the waiter, but instead saw a twenty-something dark haired man that had approached my table. “What are you doing here alone” He smirked. I gave back a clever answer. I love going out by myself. I thought. Why doesn’t everyone do this, like all the time.
The waiter approached after a while, and I paid and made my way down to the shops to try and find something to wear for the travels back home as I felt I was lacking something comfortable but still up to my fashion standards. I spotted Zara and made my way in.
Looking through the racks without having to care about someone else’s time restraints was the best thing ever. Being in college, privacy is a hard commodity to come by. On campus, you’re always surrounded by people. Even though I have a single room, people are always in my building, hanging out in the common areas or coming in and out of the hallways. Not to mention whenever you go somewhere, someone is bound to tag along, so this was a nice change of pace.
I went through the racks of sweaters and other various tops and after having a healthy selection, went over to the changing rooms. I took my time trying on each thing until an hour and a half later I found exactly what I was looking for. I paid and walked out of the store smiling.
People are always scared to do things by themselves, but if they just put aside the fear and spent some time with themselves, they would be able to appreciate the things about themselves that other people do. The main thing I took away from this experience was that you should never have to rely on other people to do something you want. Do whatever you want for yourself, and other people will come at the right time. Don’t be afraid to spend time with yourself. It lets you figure out things you can’t when you’re constantly surrounded by others. And who knows, maybe you’ll get a few phone numbers out of it.