Friendship June 16, 2024  But mostly, it’s complicated. Really complicated.

Being lonely is such an odd experience. You can be lonely virtually anywhere, no matter where you are, no matter who you are with. You can be lonely while sitting alone in your room; you can be lonely at home, while sitting in the living room with your family; you can be lonely at school or at work, surrounded by peers and colleagues; you can be lonely outside, walking on sidewalks with strangers pushing at every side of you. It's weird. It makes sense, I suppose, to be lonely while you are literally alone in your room. But you aren’t alone when you are surrounded by friends, family and acquaintances. So what gives? Why does one feel lonely when, according to everything around them they should have no reason to be? One of the opening sequences of Spider-Man: No Way Home is Peter, accompanied by MJ and Ned, walking into school. His identity has been unveiled to the world, and everyone – news reporters, classmates, teachers, fellow students – is outside, waiting and watching him, judging him, commenting on him even though they don’t actually know who he is. Peter had both MJ and Ned at his side, who obviously understood (to a degree) what he was going through. He wasn’t alone. But that scene was particularly powerful to me. Because that’s what it feels like, to be alone in a crowd. The words don’t register, your ears seem to ring, and you are enveloped in a white feeling you can’t even begin understand. And you know what the weirdest thing about that is? That while you are sitting there, feeling alone? More people than you’d guess are feeling the exact same way. You think you are the only one feeling the crushing weight of being alone in the room, but if you turn around for a second, if you look for a moment, you will find out that it’s not quite the case.  We all feel lost. We all wonder of our place in life. We all question what to do, and what to do next. Us young people, we are all a little lonely inside, we are all a little lost. I should encourage you to open up. To reach out to your fellows, so that you can push past that loneliness that some days seems just too heavy to shrug off. But that is not as feasible as some adults in your life insist. So instead, how about we be lonely together?