One is the loneliest number...

Remember when you were little and being alone was totally alright? I remember sitting in my room for hours playing with my G.I. Joes, Transformers, and Thundercats action figures for hours on end. Complete battles would take place in my room without any pauses except to use the facilities and to accommodate my mother's random check ups to make sure I wasn't causing any trouble. I never worried about needing another person to have fun or to hang out with. Of course I had neighborhood kids that I played with, but it wasn't like I depended on them.
At some point during my intragration into society (I suspect it would be Jr. High) being alone became "uncool". The number of friends you had and what you did with them became the standard to live by, and those deemed "loners" became outcasts who would never live up to that standard. Suddenly doing activities with others became an imperative property of life. We became dependent upon others to give our lives value.
Questions like "what did you do this weekend?" were asked with such regularity that you better had done something because you definitely can't say NOTHING or else you may be ridiculed. This continues even more fervently throughout high school as people developed their clicks that they hung out with every second. The only time they weren't with their click was when they were sleeping or dropping a deuce and even then it wasn't always the case.
I've lately wondered where this fear of being alone comes from because I continually struggle with it. I'm always looking to do something especially on the weekends. And if I don't do anything exciting I feel like I'm some loser wasting my life away in my room. But what is wrong with being by myself, and watching a movie in my room, or reading a book etc. Why is that not cool enough for a Friday/Saturday night? Maybe we feel more vindicated if somebody is there with us. They can share in the memory too. We can share stories about what we did with other people so that they too will want to be with us. Then all of us can share memories and stories and live happily ever after together.
I think some of this dependence comes from people not being content with themselves. They need other people to give what they do some sort of importance. If you don't like yourself then you probably won't want to hang out alone. I'm caught in the middle of this struggle because I'm a very social person, but I do like to do things alone. Nevertheless, I go through these phases were I need another person to be there. I need a group to connect with and especially on weekends because all the cool people are out doing stuff. Sometimes being alone drives me absolutely mad and other times I can't wait to get away from people. Hey what did you do this weekend? I wrote in my blog...