S.S. Kitten

The Opposite of Loneliness by Yale Daily News columnist Marina Keegan for the class of 2012 commencement.

She died in a car accident several days later at age 22.

(via caro)

If we did have a word for that, the word for unloneliness, it would include the opposite of tragedy and loss. Never having to lose people who have words like these, who have potential. Go read the whole thing. I remember feeling this way at 22, feeling like I was leaving the incredible world I’d built and not knowing if I’d ever get it back. I didn’t, but I’ve built many more worlds since then, and I hope I keep remembering that the best days aren’t gone. I hope I keep finding worlds full of people who will laugh heartily and sit around campfires and talk and sing late into the night. I hope that sense of belonging to a tribe never leaves my life. Even if the tribe is just two or three of us. Even if it’s only the one that I create myself.