in the same boat

it shouldn't be sad to feel sad

i've been publishing a lot of satire (and accruing on-going debates on one of the posts…) this is a break from the satire.

a couple weeks ago i went on a cruise to the bahamas. ¹ every day, there was a group to meet up with other solo travelers. i attended to learn about others.

the reasons solo travelers book a cruise are varied – some were celebrating their 30th or 40th birthdays, others were going on a cruise or solo traveling for the first time. over the next few days, other reasons revealed themselves – one lady had recently lost her husband, one man divorced his wife two months ago, one girl wanted to escape from her life in south dakota.

seeing the grief on the other travelers faces was really hard for me. it made me realize that no matter what career or life path you decide to pursue, you could end up lonely later on in life. if you're not too careful early on in life carefully nurturing your interests and being honest about yourself and the people you're with, you could end up by yourself.

despite their hardships, it was really heartwarming seeing the solo travelers break free and escape for the brief period of time. seeing their laughter and smiles from finding others in the same boat (quite literally) made me realize that it's okay to be happy and find joy. it's okay to take time to yourself, and it's okay if love doesn't work out. there will be different struggles at different points in life, but life will go on and you will still be yourself.

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i finished a documentary this morning called 'left on purpose'² and it made me think more about loneliness and its effect on us as human beings. how much more we are connected digitally now, yet how lonely we can still feel. it makes me wonder how many communities and religions and cults and online cultures form just to satiate the feeling of not being lonely. how we swipe on our phones just to pacify rather than face this existentialism of boredom.

sort of a strange comparison but loneliness is like hunger. it comes and goes and you don't really notice it until you severely lack it for a period of time. it's weird how little it takes to not feel lonely (have human interaction) yet how taboo it is to look like we're asking for attention.

1. i originally booked a solo cruise but then my dad came along too

2. was really thought provoking but i was very conflicted about the ethics on this documentary and how the story should have been told