Blissful Solitude 

By: Jessica B

Is being alone good or bad? “For me, being alone is a good thing because I love being alone. It helps me destress and be at peace. Being alone is just the best because no one is there to judge me. I don't have to please anyone, I can fully be myself” says Yerba Buena High School senior, Jazmine Heredia.

“I realized that being alone was a good thing my freshman year of high school because it was right after quarantine started … I had to wake up and it was like a routine for me to wake be up alone and do your things. I started realizing that I love to be alone” said Heredia.

When you are alone you have a lot of freedom, there is no one there to tell you what you should or shouldn’t be doing. Heredia says “no one can tell me that i shouldn’t be napping because it’s bad to do it during the day no one can dictate what I do, how i talk what music I listen to it's just me against the world.”

For Heredia being alone gives her time to do chores when she wants: “When I am alone I typically nap because no one can wake me up but I also do chores but the thing about being alone when I do chores no one can tell me when I am supposed to get it done I just know I have to get it done before my parents get here.”

A memory that Heredia has when she was alone is: “One time when I was alone for hours and hours on end. I felt so nice because I was de-stressed and free. I was able to listen to music extremely loud without anyone disturbing me, I was able to do whatever I wanted whenever.”

She also likes to listen to her music when she is alone because when her dad calls her and she doesn't answer he will get mad which gets her in trouble. “My favorite song, it's been just like 4 years now but I don't care, I will forever love it. Remember when by wallows and just any song that wallows makes … a lot of their songs do help teens get through a lot.”

Music has always been a constant in Heredia’s life. “I feel like covid really got to everyone and some people made impulse decisions and walked out of my life and then walked back in but during that whole time music is the only thing that didn’t walk away  from me basically … i’d just come home and turn to music and be like hey you know this kinda helped me a little bit and i’d destress a lot” said heredia.

Heredia listens to music everyday all the time. Heredia says “I wake up, I get ready with music blasting in my headphones. When I walk to school again I have music playing … when I am in class and there like take them off and I am like oh okay but other than that it's very rare that you're going to catch me without at least one headphone in my ear and my spotify playing in the background.”

Heredia listens to many different types of music. “I listen to a lot … My favorite band is wallows… I listen to some k-pop but a lot of my playlist like the English songs are really just like I feel like songs that teenagers gravitate to like you know those songs that are meant for teenagers … I feel like a lot of that music you know is what draws my attention because it's like it's so relatable” says Heredia

Heredia says “I definitely used to just listen to whatever it is my friends were playing because back then I was very scared of being alone even though I love it now how the turntables I guess but I just kind of used to be a people follower for sure so it's just whatever people are playing I was like oh yeah you know I love that too even like kind of hated it but then I was like you know kind of grew up and realized I don't need to be a people pleaser.” Heredia now listens to music she likes.