It is not without a reason that man has been described by anthropologists and psychologists as a “social animal”. Even the most devout introverts among humans cannot spend all their lives alone. At times of happiness, the first thing one feels the need for is someone to share their joy with. At times of sadness, the thing one needs the most is someone to pat their shoulder and whisper in their ear that all will be OK. A human being cannot practically live isolated from the rest of the human race. It’s living among our loved ones that gives our life its distinguished flavour. However, sometimes loneliness is not an option. It’s the only fact we have to deal with.
Loneliness is a curse. It’s as simple as that. Even a place as horrifying as a prison cell could become even more unbearable when a person is imprisoned alone. Someone, hence, was sadistic enough to come up with such a terrible kind of punishment as solitary confinement which does not involve any use of force or torture; it is simply based on depriving a human being of an essential need: being part of a society, even if it were a society of gangsters.
It’s a pity that life does not always leave us with many options. Although one might seek solitude at times, at others that solitude becomes a fact of life that cannot be changed at least for the moment. I’m blessed by a bunch of awesome caring friends, but at some point in my life, I felt I was completely on my own. At that time, my friends were all busy building a career, or a family, or both. I couldn’t blame them. I myself at that time was busy building my own career and struggling with an MA thesis which I thought would never see the light. However, as an extremely emotional person, I was deeply affected by my solitude. Shortly afterwards I was drowning in a well of depression. My life became darker than a moonless night, and I literally started to deteriorate.
It took me quite a long time to realize that loneliness is bad, yes, but not as bad as I thought. When you’re alone, you learn to love your own company and become your own best friend. In addition, you learn to come to terms with yourself. You start looking inside yourself and discovering your own points of strength and weakness. Getting to know the person that has been a stranger to you for a long time, that is you, will help you work to polish your points of strength and fix what needs to be fixed. Moreover, when you keep to yourself for some time, you learn that your happiness should rest in your own hands, not in the hands of others. You learn that you’re the best person to make you happy. Finding myself alone for a considerable amount of time helped me look inside myself to discover what could possibly make me happy, which was instrumental in improving my life later on. I started reading more books, and I started learning to play the piano and cycle. When I start to play a piece, few as the pieces I’m able to play are, I literally forget about the whole world, and when I’m on my bike, I feel a sense of freedom that absorbs me and touches my heart. Later, I discovered I have a passion for writing even though I still need years to write like I would like to.
In a nutshell, being alone for some time is not as bad as it might seem to be. There is a lot that you can discover about the person you are once you have some time to delve deeply into your inner self. I’m not trying to celebrate loneliness; on the contrary, I still find it hurtful. What I’m trying to say is always try to look at the bright side of a dark situation. Humans have an amazing ability to transform dust into gold, only if they want to.