Don't Confuse Alone With Lonely

I spent the Christmas holidays by myself, unless of course you count the sporadic visitations of Alex The Cat and I don’t. My wife and son were visiting her cousin in Memphis and unfortunately I couldn’t get time off from work. They tend to not give me time off around the holidays even though I’m the only supervisor in the evenings and those that were on 1st shift jumped on requesting it early. The thing is that when people found out I was going to be alone they began to besiege me with invitations to join them but thankfully, I was able to defer their good intentions. You see, I don’t mind being alone, as a matter of fact I was looking forward to spending some time by myself.

For some reason people tend to confuse alone with lonely. The two are not the same. Time spent by myself is usually that rarest thing where I get to indulge myself. And I did. I stayed up as late as I liked, slept in without being concerned with setting an alarm. I ate pizza on Christmas Eve and Christmas day and since it rained for over two days straight I barely left the house. While I did get two podcasts recorded and ready to go mainly I read or caught up on my Netflix queue. Basically I just did what I wanted when I wanted. I didn’t venture outside until after midnight on Saturday. I finally braved the torrential downpours to get a few groceries and hit Whataburger for some comfort food.

I've said it many times that I'm not a social person not do I care much for celebrating holidays. If it weren't for my wife and son I'd never have a tree up or decorations of any kind around the house. It's just not my thing and there is nothing wrong with that. Not everybody is the same and I feel we should embrace what makes us unique. I'm just trying to be me and stay true to myself. As I get older it seems so clear to me how much unnecessary grief and drama we put ourselves through trying to project an image of what we really are not. Having said that I know that at times I drive my wife crazy with the way I am because she's Peruvian and they are very social people.

So there you have it. I was alone for Christmas and not sad about it. Sure I would have liked to be around my family but since I couldn't be, spending some quality time with myself was a nice option to have.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.