All by myself....

As my nail technician filed and buffed my gel nails she spoke of her life before kids and marriage and toted the joy she experienced when living on her own and expressed how she sometimes longed for those days.

I then realized that in my entire 27 (dangerously close to 28) years I have never lived by myself. Granted I had a good six-year run of not co-habiting with a mate and of course there was the eighteen-year stint of the life of luxury and ease under my parent’s roof… still I had never been alone. I have always had to “play well with others.”

My nail tech thought this was horrible and insisted that I try it out someday, she giggled at the silliness of her comment when I was quick to point out that currently that would require death or divorce.

On the drive home the old wheels did begin to turn in this clunker of a brain as I pondered, did I regret always living with others? Did I miss out on something??? I thought of the people I had known and the people I knew that lived alone and quite frankly although their freedom was vast they also seemed vastly lonely???

I am well aware of my small town naivety and my lack of exposure to the many, many blissful people living solo. Still I had to conclude that even in the chaos and compromise of my current living situation I don’t long for a place of my own or regret that I never dabbled in that lifestyle.

So I send out a few questions. Have you ever lived alone? How did you like it if you did? If you never have and don’t foresee a bachelor(ette) pad in your future do you regret it?