Stay Calm. Sometimes It's Alright to be Alone.

  Ah yes, today is the Friday heading into Spring Break here at Utah State University. The days are getting longer, the sun is shining a little brighter and all around you can hear the sound of exhausted college kids breathing a sigh of relief as they jump into their cars and zip out of Logan. Except for me! We had our final run through for Rabbit Hole tonight before we go to spring break meaning that I needed to stick around today. Then tomorrow we're ushering for the Seniors BFA Acting Showcase, which means I will have to spend an entire day...alone.

  It's amazing how two syllables can be so frightening to an entire society, isn't it? It's incredible. In this day and age of technology, we are in constant communication almost 24/7, (Adjust to your sleeping schedule). Want to see someone, just shoot them a text and sure enough they'll be with you in a minute, (Adjust to your attitude). We don't know what it means to truly be alone. I can use myself as the perfect example.

 Right now, my friends Taylor, Tanner, Nic and Sarina are all out of town. They're approximately 2-8 hours away. I'm the only one sitting in my dorm room right now, and yet over the course of my writing this blog post I have checked my phone around 6 times, thus far. Scratch that...7. It's just so difficult to disconnect. I get it. We've got Snap chat, Facebook, Twitter, e-mail if you're still into that. There are so many ways to communicate being offered it's incredibly difficult to disconnect and fully embrace the idea of being alone. It seems boring. What can I do without my little light tablet? Why would I need to spend time alone by myself when I could just text my friends!? These are the questions I used to ask anytime I would be alone. But, I realized that it's okay to be alone sometimes, and here's why. 

1. You need to be able to get along with yourself. 

 The way I look at this is, if you don't like spending time with yourself, who else will? 

2. It allows you to do things you would never do in front of other people. 

 When else are you going to be able to sit in your underwear, eat Little Ceaser's and play video games without being judged by anyone?  

3. You can invest fully into anything you need to do. 

 Have a HUGE English project that you've never been able to start on because you got distracted by everything? Time to yourself can help you regain your focus and invest all of your energy into completing any projects that need to be finished!

4. It Let's you put things into perspective. 

 To quote Kendrick Lamar, "Sometimes I need to be alone." Free yourself of any and every distraction or obstacle that is causing you stress or exhaustion and relax. Being alone offers you a chance to get everything back into perspective and relax. 

5. You're in control of your life. 

 Anytime you're alone, you are in control of how your day goes. No input from people about what they want to do or where they want to go. You are the driver of your own car. You can choose to go swim in a lake, drive to Montana, go buy ice-cream. The choice is up to you! Enjoy the freedom! 

6. It makes you cherish your friends and family that much more. 

 Nothing can be as eye-opening in showing you how much you care about your friends and family than being away from them for a little while. You can be alone for hours on end, but there comes a time where you have to admit that you kind of miss them.

Now I'm not saying to completely withdraw from life and never communicate with anyone ever again. That's not smart or healthy. I'm just saying that sometimes it's okay to disconnect from everything and just disappear for a little bit. Pull out of the real world for a second and allow yourself to enter your own so you can re-evaluate any situations you're in and to get closer with you as a human being. Every so often you need to be the Squidward and escape Spongebob, because it can get a little annoying at times! So do yourself a favor and one of these days allow yourself to turn off your cell phone and just live in the moment. Go on a hike, go read a book. Recharge those batteries so that you can come back relaxed and ready to conquer the world.