Happy Almost Weekend!

This weekend I am excited to be celebrating 1 year with my partner, Joel! We are going to spend the weekend doing our favorite things: golfing, drinking beer, and consuming lots of pasta. A year ago when I started seeing Joel I was in a completely different place in my life, the changes I have made did not come easy, but they were necessary and have already given me a great amount of pride and happiness. With that being said one of these decisions was to live alone! So here it is, my take on living solo in your mid-twenties, the good, the tough, and the imperfect(what else would you expect I did say twenties).

You Always Come Home to a Welcoming Place
This might be the best part about living alone. Your place is 100% yours and no matter what type of day you are coming home from, your home is waiting for you. I’ve had days where I work extremely long hours and want nothing more than a quiet home where I can read, and I’ve also had days where I come home ready to dance around and try out a new recipe. No matter what, your home is waiting and ready.

You are in Charge of Your Enviornment
I am a firm believer in waking up and making my bed right away everyday. I also never like to leave things looking messy. I am so much more productive and happy throughout my day when I know I am coming back to a welcoming enviornment. I also do little things that make me happy, such as having a ton of plants and sleeping with my salt lamp dimly on.

You Will Make Your Decisions Only For You
Living alone makes every decision you make for you and you alone. You are the one who chooses who you spend your time with, and you start to value alone time more. Living alone gave me the strength to shed people from my life that had been hanging on for far too long. You start to realize that no matter how great you treat yourself, if you continue to surround yourself with people who do not treat themselves with respect you are never going to grow.

You Will Have Difficult Days
Living Alone has a way of making some emotions feel more powerful than others. Just last weekend I was traveling for work, running on 4 hours of sleep, and unbelievably stressed. My plane finally landed in Chicago and I felt a rush of relief to be so close to being home. My cab ended up taking 2 hours from the airport and I physically got sick due to the terribly bad stop and go traffic. I hopped out of my cab a few blocks early only for it to begin pouring down rain. I ran with my luggage and the icing on the cake was falling on the way into my building. I was so upset by the time I was in my studio that I felt no sense of relief.Eventually I was forced to reflect and realize that I was now safe in my studio, and could dwell on the day or I could take care of myself and rest.

You Will Also Have Extremely Liberating Days
Just like there are lonely days, there are far more liberating days. I am 25, living in downtown Chicago, completely supporting myself, and working a job I love. These facts are just the surface. I feel powerful on a daily basis, and it is largely in part to how I have overhauled many relationships in my life throughout the past year,especially since I have lived in my perfect little studio.

Cheers!