Project Connection

Loneliness does not discriminate. It does not consider your age, relationship status or how many connections you’ve made throughout your lifetime. Many people dear to me have been struck by this feeling, and when you’re in the midst of it, it’s easy to forget that you are not alone. It is all-consuming, piercingly loud despite the physical quiet.

How cruel this existence can be sometimes. How devastating it must be to feel like you have no one.

I know how fortunate I am to have met so many genuine people since my move to Victoria, and I am incredibly blessed to have a network of close friends in a city that is still somewhat foreign. Slowly but surely, Melbourne is becoming home.

Sometimes, I think to myself, ‘there must be something wrong with me’ or I ask, ‘am I unloveable?’ as though a relationship is the saving grace to me feeling this way. And then I realise they’re just irrational fears and projections, not the truth. My standards in love have always been high and I still hold out hope that the best is yet to come.

I have made difficult decisions to uproot everything I know so that I can have the life that I ultimately want. I have challenged myself to grow as a person and to face the ugliest parts of myself. I have worn my heart on my sleeve and taken countless chances in love. I have been brave enough to walk away from men that promise me the world but give me fragments. I have been both the heartbreaker and the heartbroken and each time has taught me more about myself.

I am still learning. I will continue to be a student until the day the world ceases to be tangible to a human me.

I am not interested in leaving a legacy but if I am able to make a positive impact on someone’s life once in a while, then that would make me proud. Last week, a regular at the poetry and prose session admitted that he had no friends. It wasn’t a plea for help, nor a call to pity. He spoke his truth as though it was all he’d ever known and I was simultaneously saddened and humbled by his statement.

Perhaps to this gentle soul, loneliness does not pervade his thought process and he finds calm in being alone. Or maybe it’s been a byproduct of circumstance and he has had no choice but to accept the reality. Either way, I would like to be friends. When I listen to him read children’s poems, I am taken to a far simpler time. And for a few minutes, I remember what it was like to know nothing more than a sweet, youthful innocence. It’s really fucking nice.

We all deserve to feel connection and it is up to us to be the change we want to see in the world. Let’s start with sharing a bit of our time with a stranger. You never know whose day you might make brighter with your presence, and vice versa. Loneliness. Does. Not. Discriminate. Invest in your relationships and never stop making an effort with people you love.