Read This If You’re Single During The Quarantine

Extroverts are having a really hard time during this quarantine. Extroverts who are single are having an even tougher time. Extroverts who are single and live alone are about to jump off a bridge just for some excitement and attention.

It’s not that we’re not taking full advantage of the tools for being social during this time. We’re Zooming, we’re FaceTiming, we’re having text conversations that last two hours. But nothing beats having that person-to-person, look-them-in-the-eyes, smell-their-scent kind of connection. And without roommates or family close by, we’re forced to spend unusually long hours inside of our own heads.

And our own heads can be a really scary place sometimes. Usually while we’re single, we’re still going out and having drinks and dinner with friends, working 40 hours or more a week, and running around town on errands, and still the idea that we’re going to end up alone creeps up. Spending every waking moment as if we’re in solitary confinement has us convinced that that is our forever fate.

I find myself fantasizing about how awesome this time of quarantine would’ve been with a partner by my side. We could share our fears and worries together, assist each other financially, create content, discuss Tiger King endlessly, make each other laugh all day, and most importantly, be in this together. Being all alone is boring and destitute.

You start to panic about the fact that you actually could contract COVID-19, and then who would be there to hold your gloved hand underneath a crack in the closed door? Who would make you soup when you have too high a fever to move off of the couch? Who would desperately be praying for your recovery? I know, I know, your mom and dad and your friends. It’s not the same. And you can’t tell any single person otherwise.

Some of you have probably contacted an ex. Some of you have probably developed a quarantine bae that you don’t see lasting past the stay at home restrictions. And I have zero judgement about that, seeing as how these are unprecedented circumstances, the ending of which no one really knows. So I say find an intimate connection wherever and however you need to.

But if you don’t really have a recent ex or anyone with whom you were or are seeing, then you are probably really struggling for kinship. And the idea that you can’t even go on a date for a couple of months at minimum is the kind of extra negativity you can’t handle right now. Sure, you could hop onto Bumble or Hinge and strike up some conversations with cute strangers, but without the opportunity for in-person socializing, what really is the point?

Nope, you just have to accept that you will be enduring through this thing on your own. And I know, watching your coupled up friends post cute Instagram and Tik-Tok videos of themselves is enough to make you want to cry, but they’re probably also driving each other nuts, so don’t be too envious.

Look at this time as an opportunity! An opportunity for, if nothing else, getting reacquainted with yourself. And if you’re really ambitious, take this time to be super productive. And it doesn’t have to consist of you writing the next great American novel. It can be small things, like reorganizing your sock drawer, updating your address book, or like me, learning how to cut your own bangs through a YouTube tutorial. We can and will get through this thing! There are a lot of others out there going through the same thing as you, so take comfort in that.

These are strange, scary times, man. We’re all just surviving the best we can. And it will all be over before we know it and we will have so much about this time to share with our new beaus whenever that time comes. And it will.