do not pity me, i prefer solitude

(these were my thoughts last christmas, and a year has passed.)

i have no plans for Christmas.

i am OK with being alone.

it's not the first time, and i was OK then too.

i live alone. being alone is not the problem.

the problem is that some people will not stop pitying me for being alone, no matter how many times i tell them it doesn't bother me.

it's as though they want me to be miserable, so they keep asking if i don't have someone to be with.

as if being with just anyone would have to be better than what i have planned.

then again, they are the ones who stay married to a man they don't like very much just because they’re afraid of being alone.

i know from experience that being with just anyone solely because it's christmas is a recipe for disaster. never again.

i spent christmas alone last year, too. it was fun. i gave thanks for the fact that i wasn't forced by tradition to spend the day with anyone i didn't like. i didn't spend a nanosecond feeling depressed or lonely.

so here, i am writing something about spending christmas alone that isn't depressing. all you ever hear or read is "spending christmas alone is hard."

i say it isn't, and there's no reason to wallow in self-pity just because society keeps telling you there's something wrong with being alone and content.

Merry Christmas!