“Walking with the crowd will usually take you no further than the crowd. Walking alone will take you to the places you’ve never been.”

This year has started differently for me. My vacations started from 1^st January and while all my friends decided to go home during the vacation, I decided to stay back at the hostel. This was a tough decision I made then – I knew there would be no food in the hostel as the catering service also closes down during the vacations. Now I’m in the hostel, alone, in a place which was filled with a hundred souls just ten days ago. Not exactly all alone; I’ve the company of around 7-8 fellow boarders. It’s one of my last vacation in the university before I graduate and I thought staying back for a few days to enjoy the pleasure of solitude would be the best way to spend my last vacation.

And then certainly, staying back here has been an exhilarating experience so far. I’m all alone all day and I have the whole day to myself. I can wake up and then plan the day calmly, execute the plans before the deadline and then chill at night. I can focus more on my work and it’s just amazing to feel the productivity and be all alone like this.

I feel, this solitude is just something that everyone needs to experience at least once during their life. Sometimes, being alone has a lot of benefits. You get time to think, think and act. You’ll never feel better than being alone for a few days after few months of a hectic schedule. It’s like you break free and release all the pressure at one go. You calm down and reach a point where you can clearly retrospect the things that matter the most. You get to know yourself better and test your skills in times of adversity. You get to know how independent you can be and how tactfully you can manage things when you have nothing to help you out of the maze, except your limbs and your mind.

Studying in the University has taught me a lot of things since the past few years. During this period, I’ve lived with more than 300 students in my hostel and interacted with about 2,000 students in the varsity, each of them having completely different nature, attitude and mentality. They have provided me an insight into various aspects of human nature and behaviour and helped me develop my own form of reading people. I have faced different situations during my stay here. I guess, all these have groomed me well enough to survive in any situation and find a way out of almost any catastrophe. I’ve changed a lot since I had first started my university life. But this vacation just seems to be grooming me more than all those past experiences combined!

It’s the 9^th day of my solitary sojourn today and I have three more days left before I set out for home as I have other chores to attend to. I wish I could stay longer, may be for the entire month, but that’s not possible as of now. The past week has been a great experience for me and I’d suggest you to take out time from your tedious life and take a break like this (even longer, if possible).

Life isn’t always about hanging out with friends and enjoying their company, sometimes you need to hang out with yourself and enjoy your own company too.

© Barnadhya Rwitam Sharma