Why I Go To The Movies Alone

[Note: I actually wrote this piece as a guest article for another blog, but as it simply never got published, I decided it would be a waste not to publish it on my own blog.] 

The first time I ever went to see a movie by myself, I went to see Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World.

I was terrified as I walked up to the counter and asked for one single ticket.

I also felt hilarious because of the irony of my movie choice whilst being alone, but that’s beside the point.

I had this preconceived notion that it was sad and depressing and just plain pathetic going to the movies alone. I thought everyone in the theater would judge me or feel sorry for me, and I didn’t like either of those options. I remember being in high school and seeing people alone at the movies and swearing that I would never be that pathetic.

And then after college I moved to a city where I had no friends and was five and half hours away from family, and had no choice but to be pathetic and go to the movies alone. I befriended my town’s $2.50 movie theater after living in the city for six months and swallowing my pride long enough to tell the guy at the counter that I just needed one ticket.

An hour into the movie, it hit me that going to the movies alone was the best thing that could have ever happened to me at that time in my life.

No one is watching you. Literally.

I have always been a self-conscious person, caring way more about how people view me than I should.

But in a dark movie theater, I realized that literally no one is looking at me or cares that I’m there by myself. They’re there to watch a movie, not watch me.

There is a lot of freedom in realizing that you don’t have to worry what others are thinking about you because they’re not paying you a bit of attention.

A movie theater alone can be a little slice of heaven.

I was in a place where it didn’t seem to matter that I didn’t know anyone or was alone. I could laugh with people, cry with them, be shocked, amazed, inspired, and all without even talking to them. I could eat snacks and junk food in public to my heart’s content, and no one judged me because no one was looking at me.

An introvert’s paradise, really.

Going to the movies made me take myself on a date.

That may sound silly, but I was alone in a city I didn’t want to be in, and it was really easy for me, on my days off, to stay in bed till 3 p.m. feeling sorry for myself. The movie theater got me out of bed, dressed in something other than sweatpants.

I used to consider going to the movies as like taking myself out on a date. Before going, I would shower, put on makeup, do my hair, dress up a little even maybe, not for anyone but myself. I would buy popcorn at the movies and not have to share with anyone. I didn’t feel so gloomy and self-pitying while I was enjoying a movie.

Even though I currently actually have a few friends now and am dating someone I can drag to the movies, I still sometimes take myself to a movie alone, just to cheesily remind myself that I’m my friend and I’m pretty cool.