Spending Time Alone in Glasgow

From the title of this post, I know there may be some people who are thinking "spending time alone? Why is this a blog-worthy post?" However, if you're an avid reader of my blog, you'll probably understand how big a deal this actually is for me. Let me just start by addressing the fact that yes I used to travel into Glasgow alone almost everyday of the week when I had uni. I'm a 45minute train journey away from the city of Glasgow and my uni campus buildings were a 20+ minute walk from the train station. Back then I would travel in for the sole purpose of going to uni so my days were pretty mapped out where I needed to be and at what times I needed to be there. Plus once I actually arrived at uni, I would then spend the rest of the day with friends so it wasn't like I was alone for too long once I got there. However, with the lockdowns and my last year of uni being completed entirely at home, I had no reason to travel into Glasgow for a while and so I grew used to not needing those particular skills. The lockdowns have made it hard to adjust to being back in the big, wide world and being around a lot of people at the one time. What little social skills I may had built up had been completely torn down which is why, the other day, I decided to travel into Glasgow with my brother who was going in for a two-hour uni lecture. This meant that I had about two and a half hours to kill by myself.

If you read my blog posts then you'll know that I've got social anxiety which makes everyday things like talking to people/strangers or doing things alone quite difficult. It's started to affect my working-life with my new colleagues and so I really want to try to do something about it. As I'm still not 100% certain on the best ways to tackle this, I've decided that I'm going to start by trying to gently nudge myself out of my comfort zone. Hence why I went with my brother to Glasgow even though I knew it meant I would have to spend over two hours by myself. This was something that made me nervous but it was also something that I knew would be manageable since where we were going was a place that I was familiar with and I was going to stick to the places I knew.

As I waved goodbye to my brother at around half past 10 in the morning, this was when it truly sunk in that I was alone in Glasgow and would have to find things to do. I started by going into Buchanan Galleries - a shopping centre that I know but wouldn't say was my comfort shopping centre (my comfort one is definitely St. Enoch as I've spent the most time in there😄) so I decided to just wonder around for a bit, building up some courage. I was going to start the day in Stabucks but decided that I should probably get myself out and about before settling into the one place right at the beginning of my day. So, with that in mind, I ventured outside into the great big city. Once outside, I had a tiny mini panic of "oh no! Where do I go now?" so I just decided to walk and see what happened from there. I decided that I wanted to get some work done for going back to school on Monday but I didn't have a notepad so decided to stop into Paperchase first. It was such a lovely, cosy atmosphere in Paperchase that I was immediately put at ease and that was when I realised "I can do this!" I bought a few items from Paperchase and then went on my merry way. From there I felt more confident to go into shops and have a look around. 

I was actually surprised by the fact that I wasn't feeling as self-conscious as I had thought I would feel. Talking to the strangers in shops wasn't as bad as I had built it up in my head to be - of course I fumbled and had some slightly awkward moments - but overall, things went as well as I could have hoped for. I was having a pretty good anxiety day whereby my anxiety levels were actually pretty low (again, surprising myself!) and so that definitely made things a lot easier to handle. I walked around a lot of different places, treated myself to some new things, and had a nice time overall. 

Near to the time my brother was due to finish, I decided to end my solo time at the place where I had initially planned to go first - Starbucks. I went to the one in the Buchanan Galleries and ordered myself a hot chocolate because I was definitely feeling a little sweet treat after everything. I was even lucky enough to bag a table near the window. Once I had sat down, I took out my new notebook, took some notes for work to be productive and just reflected on the day I had had and how proud I was at myself for doing it all. 

To many other 22 year olds, I'm sure this all probably wouldn't have been that big a deal, spending time on their own, but I think it's always important to celebrate your own personal little wins and that day had definitely been one of mine. Sure, I could do the exact same again and maybe end up feeling differently about things or be having a not-so-great anxiety day, but I'll take these little wins whenever I can get them. Once my brother was finished, we met back up and went to Bucks Bar for lunch. I had never been before but I thoroughly enjoyed it! Everything from the food to the ambience to the music was just perfect. I had the chicken popcorn and skinny fries and it was honestly the best crispy chicken I had eaten in quite some time😄 We stopped by Mooboo Bubble Tea on the way to the train station. They didn't have the ingredients for my usual chocolate milk tea with strawberry balls so I tried the taro milk tea with blueberry balls and I think it could possibly be a new favourite!

So it turned out to be a pretty great day and I'm definitely going to try and challenge myself a little more when I can to get out and do things I wouldn't normally do. I need to take the advice of 20-year-old me and push myself out of my comfort zone again. The past year of Covid related lockdowns has definitely left me too comfortable and struggling to leave the safety of the comfort zone I've built up for myself but as things are getting closer and closer to the old "normal", it's time once again to say goodbye to the comfort zones and hello to new adventures.

What will you do to push yourself out of your comfort zone?

Bye for now, xo