A collage made by me on Canva, consisting of different images I’ve taken while “taking myself on dates” over the past few weeks. Text reads: (top left corner) “Dates with myself”, (top right corner) “poetry night”, (bottom right corner) “plant shopping (fell’s point)”, and “a trinket haul”.

I came to the realization this past summer that I have never lived alone. I grew up with a large family, lots of siblings and cousins always around, and went straight to living with my partner and their family at eighteen. After that, I came to college, where I’ve always shared a dorm or apartment with three other people. So learning to exist by myself, in a way that is not dictated or defined by the people around me, has been trickier than I’d care to admit.