"I Admire You For Being Able to Live Alone!"

Sorry for the lag in posting. Life has been pretty stressful. I'm getting laid off and the blog just hasn't been my first priority lately...


Anyway, I find it amusing when I tell people that the only roommate I have is my cat and they say that they admire me for being able to live alone. There they have made an assumption: that the norm is to want to have a roommate and that I am "strong" for being able to live alone. I think this assumption may be especially true with women. Even if just subconsciously, we think of men who live alone as "bachelors" and women who live alone as "lonely." 


Unless I were in a situation in which I had a boyfriend, I cannot see myself living in any way but alone. At summer camp group living was fun, but that's another situation entirely. When living with a roommate in an apartment, both parties inevitably have their own habits that annoy the other person. When I live alone, I can watch Back to the Future over and over. I can say stupid things to my cat. True, I can get an apartment in which I have my own room and nobody can get annoyed by my odd habits, but sharing a bathroom is never fun. It's through the bathroom that you learn how even people you like very much can gross you out.


So what it comes down to is this: Like many Aspies, it would only make sense to admire me for having a roommate, not living alone.