a tour of winston... by myself

all my friends are leaving/have left me!! I thought I would be fine, but I'm actually incredibly sad. I've thought this through though and it makes so much sense! Everything has a season, and this season is begging for alone time.

Over the next month, I plan to live at Camino, with occasional trips to a/perture to watch weird movies with myself. I will also visit my friends at ECU, Wilmington, Chapel Hill, and App, and will hang out with my current high school friends some too. I would love to hang with these people all the time:), but I know they need their space as they enter into new seasons of life (whether that's at a new school in a different city, or starting a new year in high school). So sadly, I will be giving them lots of space to find their place. The good thing about this: it will make time with them SO valuable, and I get to practice spending a lot of time with myself. I actually really enjoy my alone time. Though I am definitely an extrovert, I'm still about 30 percent introverted, and if anyone loves the Myers Briggs personality assessment like I do... I'm an ENFP. This means that I am the type of extrovert that needs the most alone time to function well. To spend a lot of time alone you need to be comfortable with yourself, and able to handle the thoughts and feelings that can arise while alone. This is something I've been working on over the past year, and not to pat myself on the back or anything, but I've gotten pretty good at it. A year ago, I detested being alone, and experienced major FOMO when I couldn't find anything to do. I never stayed home, especially in the evenings, because I would panic about feeling "trapped" in my own home. I would just drive around until someone became available, and sometimes ended up hanging out with people who didn't make me feel like the best version of myself, just so I had something to do. Today, for the most part, I can enjoy doing things on my own; I can sit at Bailey Park reading a good book, or just generally feel comfortable spending a chill evening relaxing (maybe playing cards with my fam at home).

Regardless, sometimes spending a lot of time with yourself can be challenging, so I am excited I get to practice before I ship off to Spain, where I assuredly will feel very alone during my first couple weeks.