(An Instagram post from 15 February, 2015)

I made my way through the streets of Prague to a reservation-only restaurant where I had a table-for-one waiting for me. "It's a vulnerable thing to go to places where you have to sit and be still and can't always read a book and shouldn't hide behind your phone," I wrote years ago, before my job would make me an expert at such things. "It's an insular thing to do stuff in groups, like a wall of protection. But it's a protection from things either devastatingly terrible, like the awkwardness of not knowing what to do, where to look, of sitting in silence like you're some suicidal loner...or it's protection from things grandly enchanting, new insights, new possibilities than those previously constructed. In short, to be alone is to be open to the elements of society and the possibility of a great fate. It's exhilarating and frightening all at once. It's life when we allow ourselves to sometimes forgo the security we carefully craft." I dare you, even if you're living in a community that has provided you with enough Someones you're never without options, book a table somewhere formiddable (no hipster cafes! a real Date Night restaurant only) and turn off your phone and just be alone.