lonely vs. solo

welcome to introspection ft. harsehaj! ⭐️ i’m harsehaj, a 19 y/o always up to something in social good x tech.

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onto today’s topic: lonely vs. solo 🧍‍♂️ 

yesterday i walked into a pizza place very evidently by myself and the waitress asks me, “for two?”

in the moment i felt embarrassed when i said, “no, just 1!” but looking back, there’s nothing wrong with it at all. korea in particular has a very social culture. very rarely will you see someone sitting alone anywhere, except on the subway and even then, everyone is texting someone on their phones. 📱 

i was prepared, excited even, to explore seoul by myself and let myself be in complete control of my time. it has been a blast, i find a lot of enjoyment spending time with myself. that’s what solo traveling is — it’s solo, but certainly not lonely if you do it correctly.

i hit up photobooths, tried tanghulu 🍓 and did a lot of shopping with new friends until 1am yesterday. i took a walk around yonsei university while on facetime with my friends and family in the morning. some of us at our hostel did a face mask night the other day.

dear pizza lady, i do have friends! it’s hard not to have them with hostel culture. so, by no means do i feel lonely. this is like my ideal mix: solo-first with the easy opportunity to inject social elements in.

the only part i dislike about going to places by myself is the difficulty of taking pictures with me in it. 💀 i’m still getting over my embarrassment of asking random people to take a photo of me.

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