That Same Old Ache
Dear Journal,
I get lonely.
There, I said it. I get lonely. Sometimes I struggle with it. Other times, I appreciate the alone time.
I just don't understand why as a cultural it feels like it's the worst thing in the world than to admit that you're lonely, or that one gets lonely? It's like, our culture believes that to admit loneliness is a sign of weakness and neediness, yet the truth (to me at least) seems to be that it's an indication and a reminder that we're all social creatures and that we need social interaction. We crave it.
So why is it so hard to maintain those consistent and readily kind of friendships and interactions? But I suppose it doesn't help when most of the time we spend trying to hype our lives as if everyone genuinely is happy all the time, and that we're living our best lives (particularly on social media). If that were the case, rates of depression and feelings of loneliness and isolation wouldn't have been on the rise in America for the past 20 years, nor would we have dropped to #14 in terms of happiest country on Earth (some of which is not helped by the existence of Agent Orange is the 45th president right now.).
Still, it's a moment of reflection, and while I'm in a period of this reflection for Lent it seems important to acknowledge this. It seems important to first acknowledge where one is in as much of one's honesty as they can muster, and then take that decision and do something with it.
So, I am lonely and experiencing FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)...I'll have to do something about that.
Coveting,
~KM
I get lonely.
There, I said it. I get lonely. Sometimes I struggle with it. Other times, I appreciate the alone time.
I just don't understand why as a cultural it feels like it's the worst thing in the world than to admit that you're lonely, or that one gets lonely? It's like, our culture believes that to admit loneliness is a sign of weakness and neediness, yet the truth (to me at least) seems to be that it's an indication and a reminder that we're all social creatures and that we need social interaction. We crave it.
So why is it so hard to maintain those consistent and readily kind of friendships and interactions? But I suppose it doesn't help when most of the time we spend trying to hype our lives as if everyone genuinely is happy all the time, and that we're living our best lives (particularly on social media). If that were the case, rates of depression and feelings of loneliness and isolation wouldn't have been on the rise in America for the past 20 years, nor would we have dropped to #14 in terms of happiest country on Earth (some of which is not helped by the existence of Agent Orange is the 45th president right now.).
Still, it's a moment of reflection, and while I'm in a period of this reflection for Lent it seems important to acknowledge this. It seems important to first acknowledge where one is in as much of one's honesty as they can muster, and then take that decision and do something with it.
So, I am lonely and experiencing FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)...I'll have to do something about that.
Coveting,
~KM