Going to the Cinemas Alone: Solo Series

Welcome to my new blog series called ‘Solo Series’. In this series, I will be trying a number of things alone e.g. eating in a restaurant, going to the cinemas, beach, short trips etc. and writing about it (duh). It is really easy to become reliant on other people to take care of you and that’s not a bad thing. It’s good to have people to lean on, to have love and to have family and friends who care. But what’s even better is when you have all of that but also have a good relationship with yourself. A relationship where you enjoy your own company so much that you are cool spending a weekend completely alone. That you know that you can trust yourself to make good decisions. Knowing that you can take care of yourself if you have to. Becoming more self-reliant is something that I am striving for. Having struggled with the ups and downs of chronic illness has caused me to become very reliant on my parents. I am getting to a stage where I am ready to start taking charge of my own life. So here I go, embarking on a solo journey of finding myself, learning how to trust myself and growing into myself.

Let’s start with the cinemas.

The cinema is a place that is usually social. You message a friend about a cool movie you think they would like, you set a date, buy the tickets, have dinner before hand, whisper to each other through the movie and then talk about it after. I just realised that this could be an actual date with *not a friend* but I have very little social life and absolutely no dating life, so there you go.

Most people would think about going to the cinemas alone and shiver in response. They would say ‘that’s what loners do’ or ‘people are gonna think I have no friends’. I used to think this too. But every now and then there would be a movie that I want to see, or a concert, or anything else in the world, that none of my friends have any interest in. I missed out on Michael Buble because of this and deeply regret it.

So when After We Collided came out in cinemas, I knew that this would be my opportunity to go alone (review post coming on this movie very soon). I procrastinated going for a few weeks. I was nervous. I felt anxious. I wondered what people would think until one night I said ‘screw it’ and booked my ticket. I was locked into going the next morning at 10am and I had no choice (unless I wanted to waste the 20 something dollars I spent on the ticket and this blog is not successful enough for me to do that… yet).

Luckily for me I am writing this in a COVID world. This really helped ease my fear because I knew that the cinemas would be pretty empty. It also helped that I went in the middle of a work day when most people would be busy earning money and working hard. There were only 4 other people in the cinema. 2 old ladies (I really wonder what they thought of the steamy scenes) and 2 younger ladies. I sat on the other side of the cinema a bit further back. I sat a few seats in, settled down and relaxed. And it was honestly the most relaxed that I have been in a cinema in a long time. Being there alone allowed me to chill out and not feel like I have to chat or entertain anyone. I could just be myself, enjoy the movie and enjoy my own company. Overall, I loved it. It left me in such a great mood, feeling energised and ready to have some human interaction later that day. Any introverts will feel me when I say that spending time with people can be very draining. So having this chill ‘me’ time was exactly what I needed to reset, refresh and get myself ready to interact with people again.

So if you have a little spare time on your hands and a few movies that you really want to see, just go! Book it alone, you’ll love it. Don’t wait for a friend to be available to do the things that you love to do. And who knows, maybe you’ll meet some new people along the way too.