In your emerging adult life, you begin to learn that not everything you want to do is what your friends want to do. In college especially, we feel we’re at the light at the end of the tunnel, freedom, and we might not know what to do with it. Sooner or later, you will make the decision to actually go do something alone. It might be as crazy as going spontaneously going to a music festival or as simple as going to see the new kid’s movie that just popped into theaters. Even though it’s always great to have company, sometimes busting a solo mission has its rewards. Time alone gives you an opportunity to think, experience something in a new light, or just realize that you don’t always need a buddy to try something new.
Either way, here are the 6 stages of going out alone for the first time in public.
6.) Kansas
This first stage is the embodiment of the Wizard of Oz quote, “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” Being in a crowd of people that all have other people while you have no one is a surreal experience if you’re used to having someone by your side all the time. The difference is stark and you may find yourself with your jaw on the floor on the inside. Thoughts like “Does anyone know I’m alone? What if I’m just meeting up with a friend? You don’t know me, sir, staring at me with the weird shoes, quit looking at me!” might run through your head in this initial stage of going out.
