When I was in kindergarten, I was most behaved in class. In fact, my first scholastic award, in red and white colours, is a ribbon that read Jay Famoso, Most Behaved. When I asked my mother, what did I do to deserve that ribbon, she said, “You just stayed in one corner alone, as if afraid to move and talk.” Nevertheless, my fondness to be alone first taught my parents to be photogenic onstage.
My wanting to be alone most of the time grew fonder because of my Chemistry Professor. She will just barge inside Science Complex 117, write gas law problems, and leave the room without saying a word. We assume she will just be back. Lesson learned. Don’t assume! Because of you assume, you make an ass out of you and me. At the end of the class, we all got zero. After that, I spent most of my time, alone in the library, to study chemistry.
“It is only when we silent the blaring sounds of our daily existence that we can finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us, as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts”.
“Language... has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word "solitude" to express the glory of being alone”.
When does one mean power? When does solitude become the best option in life?
When writers write their literary masterpieces, they seclude themselves from the deafening noise of the world. In their solitude where peace and silence abound, comes out the free flowing cornucopia of words and ideas ready to be etch in ink and paper. Examples are, The Count of Monte Cristo, Love in the Time of Cholera, A Tale of Two Cities, and others. Conrado de Quiros of the Philippine Daily Inquirer once wrote in his column, There’s the Rub, that when he writes early in the morning, he does not answer text and calls, unless, he knows that that person is dying.
When Albert Einstein formulated his theory of relativity, he did it in solitude where concentration is boundless and infinite.
When Thomas Alba Edison invented the light bulb which he did in two thousand experiments, he did it all by himself in his own laboratory.
I asked recently a colleague if there’s a term in psychology that refers to a person who enjoys in solitude most of the time. She seemed preoccupied with her analysis that she just earnestly smiled as an answer to my query.
"Why do you live alone in your rented house?"
That question has been asked to me innumerably that in fact I have gotten used to it. And this is how it usually started.
Commencing a conversation with a stranger, (Let me first qualify the word “stranger”. It could be a friend of my friend, an auditor from another brewery, or a new colleague) one of the informations that will be asked is the location of your house. Guilty? Then the trail of questions will follow. Take for example my case. Once they know that I am renting my own place. The follow-up question to that would be, "How many are you in the house?" I’d say "I live alone". As a follow-up to the follow-up question, would be "Why do you live alone?" If I may deduce the question, they wanted to know if it is a personal choice or a pure circumstance. So I would say it’s a choice. My answer will always elicit a conspicuous, pensive gaze shown in their eyes riveted on my face. "Are you a loner", they would ask. "I am not", I would answer.
Living alone taught me things I could not possibly learn if live in two or three.
I decide things on my own. I clean my own place. I solve my own problems. I influence my own decision. I have plenty of time to be myself, to reflect, retrospect, and introspect.
I am in full control of my life. I am a mature, young professional who has found his niche outside the portals of the academe. I am now a person who stands on my feet gripping fully on my cognitive capacity to decide on my own.
Conrado de Quiros, Albert Einstein, Thomas Alba Edison, Jay Famoso, have one thing in common. Not genius. Not good looks. They all believed in THE POWER OF ONE!
