Giving alone time

http://www.whatithinkabout.com/giving-yourself-alone-time/

Loneliness and isolation is an issue in today’s society. Due to lack of social activities and increase of individual activities, authoritives have lead to the conclusion that our society is dreary. While in America, teenagers party frequently and meet up with friends daily, teens in Korea are defined as ‘students’ only. They are persuaded to study and study alone, since it is what Koreans think efficient. The fact that debate is not settled is another reason why we students study alone. Though this is not the main point, because Korean teens are students studying alone, Koreans are not participating in social life even when we are young. Despite the few hours we stay in school, teenagers are not allowed to meet friends before finishing their homeworks(from both school and academies), which seems to never end!

Teenagers seem so busy doing individual works, but schools with dormitory is another case. Few high schools including mine have dormitories where all students are required to stay during weekdays. And each rooms include more than two students, there are 6 in our dormitory. Every day, every moment we are surrounded by people who are not even my family. People expect us to build sociality or anything that we can learn through dorm-life.

The first few weeks of dorm-life was fun. I could stay with my friends all day, and not get disturbed by parents’ worries. We had lots to talk about, about the school and other friends and so on. Even when we did not go home for the weekend, it was just fine. I did miss our family, but nothing else was a problem. Until I actually came to my home again, I did not notice.

After my first going-home, I felt what I was missing. It was the ‘Alone Time’ that I missed. In my home, I had my own room, just for myself. Everything was controled by me in my room and I had complete freedom. Although my roommates and I started to relax in the room without caring much about each other’s eyes, it was certainly different to have my own room. I could relax the most and all the stress washed away. Just during those two days, I was real happy even I was alone.

The article (http://www.whatithinkabout.com/giving-yourself-alone-time/) actually says that ‘giving oneself time to be alone is needed. Of course, isolation is dangerous, but to students like me who always see issues about ‘problems of isolation’, and ‘loneliness and isolation’, this kind of articles were quite helpful. Since I was about to be convinced that being with people is always better.