You too can feel as smug as me

Earlier this month I went to see Little Women by myself and was amused to realise that the guy sitting next to me was also flying solo. When I started full-on weeping, I saw him wipe a tear out of the corner of my eye. We didn’t speak but I felt a connection to my sofa mate. It was nice.

One of the first times I went to the cinema by myself was New Year’s Eve in 2010. I was living in South Korea at the time, teaching English. My boyfriend at the time and all my friends were going out in the nearest big city Busan but I was ill with a chest infection so decided I better stay close to home. 

At some point it dawned on me that I was going to be by myself on the biggest night of the year so to fill my evening, I took myself off to the cinema to watch whichever Harry Potter film was out at the time. Going to the cinema alone was a new thing I was trying out. It started when I wanted to go and see something my ex didn’t want to watch and I couldn’t be arsed to arrange to go with a friend. I s…