How the pandemic taught me to enjoy being alone.
I had always been hesitant to explore places on my own. Maybe because at home, I always had the company of my parents or a friend. In college, things were different. I couldn’t always depend on my friends to spend hours just… explore random places. We were all busy people with our own schedules.
Then the pandemic happened. After spending the first few months of quarantine at home, I returned to Boston to begin an internship. Due to restrictions, I lived all by myself. I had a car so I could avoid public transportation. Most of my friends were living at their own homes. So I was truly alone in the city.
A week into working, I was craving ice cream. And thanks to my internship, I had the money to buy it myself! I googled nearby ice cream shops and was surprised to see so many. During the regular school year, I would never go to most ice cream places because they were so far away, the T would probably take an hour to get there, I’d have to walk from the T stop, etc. In short, it’s a hassle getting from school to Cambridge! But now I had a car. As in, I had the freedom to go wherever I wanted. Since I wasn’t taking classes, I also had the free time to explore.
So it started with ice cream. Honeycomb, Gracie’s, Toscanini’s, to name a few. I was driving through Cambridge a lot and I had really only been to Cambridge once during the normal, pre-pandemic times in school. Cambridge had a vibe that Boston didn’t have. A home-ier vibe.
I saw a Facebook post that on October 10th, the Blue Bikes would be free for Mental Health Day. I had always wanted to ride a Blue Bike, but I never felt like paying money or lugging my bike helmet around (safety first!). The free Blue Bikes was the final push I needed to go on a bike ride. I decided to ride in Cambridge and explore the areas I had been driving through.
I drove down to Kendall Square, parked my car (shoutout to my parallel parking skills), and got a free Blue Bike. I brought a little carabiner to hook my water bottle to the little basket on the bike. I went down Memorial Drive, which has an incredible view of the Charles River.
It was my first time not biking in my suburban neighborhood. I had to navigate between runners, walkers, and really speedy bikers. I stopped a few times to have a sip of water. I went from Kendall Square, passed MIT’s campus, turned around at the Boston University boat house, and came all the way back to near the Museum of Science.
Riding that bike was freeing! The wind in my face, the views of the Charles, and I did it all alone. I managed to ride for over an hour, going five miles and burning a whopping 500 calories!
The experience was exhilarating and fun. And notably, I have fun without the company of others. And there was absolutely no need to do it with someone else. A few weekends later, I rented a Blue Bike again. This time, I went on Sundays, when the city of Cambridge closes part of Memorial Drive to car traffic. This experience was a little more relaxing, as there was more space to ride and I didn’t come close to hitting pedestrians. This time, I biked past Harvard Square and nearly all the way to Arlington. My mind wondered, why had I never done this before?
Riding the Blue Bikes taught me how I can enjoy my time being alone. I struggled in college being able to do things by myself. I always had thoughts such as, would I look like a loser with no friends? And of course, would I get kidnapped? I also truly believed I was incapable of doing things on my own. I needed someone to guide me through things. But, I was growing up. I have to do things on my own. There’s something freeing in not having my hand held through life.
I like to think that eventually, pandemic or not, I would have learned how to do things on my own. Alas, there was (is?) a pandemic and it forced me to be alone. It forced me to seek out food, activities, experiences that I wanted to do and made me do them on my own. I didn’t need the company of a friend to do things I enjoyed.
When I think about what this pandemic taught me, it taught me how to be alone.
