Hello all, and welcome to the next installment of Making my Mark on the world. In this brief post, I recap my most recent apartment tour and share how I used it to do something that I have never done before.
This past Wednesday, I toured an apartment community. I wrote a little bit about what I am looking for in said community here. Anyhow, the tour proved to be inconsequential. The area was fine, but nothing that I saw from the tour highlighted the sense of community that I was looking for. I won’t be moving to those apartments unless something changes. Regardless, the reason that I wanted to share more about this experience is because I did something that I have never done before in my life. That is, I dined at a full service restaurant by myself.
On the surface, this might not sound like much. However, for me it was a challenge. I embraced the feeling of being uncomfortable. I dismissed the thoughts that people might be judging me and just tried to enjoy the experience. In all, it was a little rushed as the servers pushed me through pretty quickly. That is not uncommon even for dining in groups. However, I would do it again. Hopefully in a restaurant that moves a little slower.
I mention all of this because I have been stuck in a pattern of isolation and stagnancy. The only way to break out of this pattern is by getting out and about. Sometimes, I talk myself out of this by using the justification that I don’t have anyone to go with and therefore it is not worth it. Yet, that is the wrong way to think about things. Would I have enjoyed this more with another person? Most likely. Did I enjoy it more than just eating by myself in my apartment? Most likely. Did I increase my chances of meeting new people? Most definitely. That makes it worth it.
I am trying to re-frame my mindset like this. Maybe I don’t have a friend or partner in close proximity to do these things with, but I am fully capable of doing these things on my own. Doing these things on my own is also better than isolating myself in my apartment. It feels good to get out. For anyone, getting out can improve mood. Further, doing these things will increase my chances of meeting someone to do more fun things with in the future. I also wanted to say embrace the different or abnormal. Many people will not do things such as eating at a sit-down restaurant or going to the movies by themselves, but it is perfectly okay to do so. I’d argue that it is even healthy.
I realize that this might not be the most exciting topic for a blog. However, as always it is real. This is what life looks like for an introverted millennial male living in DC and looking for more connections.
As always, thank you for reading Making my Mark on the world. I am glad that you are here. If you liked this post, please consider subscribing or sharing.