30: How to Be Alone

First, tell him it’s over. Tell your friends you’re satisfied. Take yourself to movies. Read books in bed. When eating, hide the sound of your chewing with talk radio. For momentum, ride the subway. Spend time with a man who doesn’t look at you that way. When the thought of him threatens to turn you into a shiny penny, resist. Live as the addicts do, one day at a time. Give yourself something to anticipate: take up smoking. Commit. Alone is not lonely. Alone is you asleep. Lonely is you at the hands of a mugger, the victim of someone else’s need.