No Man is An Island . . .

"No man is an island unto himself." These famous words written by John Donne have been sticking in my mind for the past couple of days. I seem to find myself more and more alone lately as I hide in my room pouring over textbooks and writing essays, but the more I think about it, I can never be truly alone. I cannot hide away on my personal island, because even though I may shrink away from the shore, as soon as I look up I notice more and more islands besides me. This makes me exceptionally grateful to my friends and family who are always right besides me, supporting me, helping me.

Being alone, I think, is all an allusion. You can be surrounded by people but feel completely alone, or be all by yourself and reading an old letter written by a dear one and feel their love reach out to you over oceans and mountains, or even across just the street. Being alone, I think is a choice that we all make. We choose to be social, or to cast ourselves out of the group. True, some may take more effort than others, but in the end, we can't really blame people for ostracizing us because we chose it. If we really want to be apart of something, then we just have to do it. People are willing to welcome you if you make the effort to do so.

No man is an island because we are all a part of something much bigger. A community. A friendship. A family. Even if you don't feel like you belong, you do. People care about people and so they care about others, about you, about me.