I’m always a big fan of doing something new. Anything new.
December is my birthday month and I like to celebrate for days! One of the things I wanted to do was take a cooking class. As luck would have it, Groupon showed up in my inbox one day about a month before my birthday with a discounted class admission for a French cooking class in Chicago. Ummm yes please, sign me up! I do so love when things find me organically and I don’t have to go looking for them. Since I was already going to be in the city, it was a perfect fit that the menu they were offering on the day I was looking at was PERFECT for me!!
I signed up by myself with the intention of bringing a friend. The friend I invited was busy that day, and it kind of went out of sight out of mind to invite someone else. I didn’t really give it another thought…until a few days before when I realized I was going to a French cooking class alone. Anyone I had ever known to attend a cooking class went with their significant other, so I found myself wondering if I should reschedule for a different day.
I’m all about doing things by myself, and most things I’m happily comfortable to do alone – except being somewhere by myself surrounded by couples at one of those “couples” things. That makes me feel awkward. Now here’s that self-conscious part in all of us where we think about all the ways we might feel gawked at, sympathized for, pitied even, by the other people in the group.
I was at a crossroads. I either go by myself and risk feeling all those things, reschedule for a different time when someone could go with me, or cancel it altogether. I’m of the opinion that we miss out on far too many things in life because we’re waiting on other people to go with us. We feel like we need a companion, someone to talk to, be with – mostly so we don’t feel like the weird girl/guy that goes to things alone.
The thing is though…. we actually miss out on a lot more by not going. When we go out with friends, what usually happens is we stick to our little pod. We don’t usually talk to anyone else. Think about the last time you went out for coffee/lunch/an event with a friend or a group of friends; chances are you didn’t talk to anyone outside that group, right? That’s what we do. We clique-up, and what we actually end up doing is isolating ourselves from meeting or engaging with anything or anyone else around us.
I’ve found some of the best connections I’ve made with people are from places I went by myself where I was completely open to the opportunity to interact with others (ie. not on my phone, reading, or otherwise “busy”). I wonder what life would look like if more people willingly did things they wanted to do by themselves as a new experience?
In case you were wondering, I went to the cooking class by myself. And yes, until the last two people came into the class I was surrounded by couples, and yes, I did feel a little awkward. Thank goodness for the two sisters that came to the class together. I initiated a conversation with them, which eventually opened up the entire class to interact with each other. It was such a fun class and we made such incredibly yummy food! It was a really amazing addition to my birthday festivities. And to think… I almost backed out and let fear win.
PS
Fist bump to the single peeps, bask in the gratitude of how great some things about being single actually are! After all, nothing lasts forever – your single status, or the empty bed for you to ninja-starfish all over. =)
