We All Get Lonely

No doubt my life is a little unorthodox. Next to “Where exactly do you live again?”, the most common question I get is “Don’t you get lonely?”. To which my reply is “yes but”…

Title borrowed from the Trampled by Turtles song - We all get lonely. A most excellent tune, Ted. 

I do get lonely, we all get lonely, but I am also an oddity.  I have always been a solitary person, even as a teenager my friends did not understand that side of me.   I have certainly tested myself over the last couple of years, spending weeks alone with very little human interaction.   There are limits to the amount of time any person, regardless of how solitary they might be, can comfortably go without direct human interaction.   We are social creatures. 

Maybe the question people really want to ask but do not have the courage to do so, is “do you miss being married or in a relationship?”.   There are things I miss very much, but overall, not really.  Not enough to force anything or compromise.  The loneliest moment of my life was watching my marriage slowly sink like a crippled sail boat in the Caribbean Sea, powerless to do anything but save myself.   That is real loneliness, unparalleled, rip your guts out lonely.   What I am doing now is easy by comparison.  You meet the people you are supposed to meet when you are supposed to meet them, no reason to force, things happen in their own time.

Here on this island, I seem to be a different version of myself, better in ways, I have made more friends than all the other places I have traveled combined.  People here are friendly, likeminded, and generally curious about your story.   The friendships have a depth and frequency that is not common in my experience. All alone in a strange new place, forced to go out in the world and make friends.   The past two years have been a fun and challenging ride for this introvert. 

Here I am alone, as happy as I have ever been, singing and dancing in the kitchen, making my grilled Wahoo salad. Working towards becoming the best version of Josh, for myself and everyone I care about in this world.

Cheers

“Every one you never wanted to run into again.  Is sitting at this bar next to each other”                 Trampled by Turtles  - We all get lonely