9781422287682

the middle of nature, and yet feel perfectly happy because you feel connected and close to the people you love—or you could be walking down a city street, surrounded by a crowd, and feel desperately lonely because no one in the crowd even knows your name. Like Rick, you could be with a group of friends and feel lonely, because no one understands you. You could be with your family, like Lisa, and feel lonely because you want to be with someone your own age. Experts have found that loneliness can’t necessarily be pre- dicted based on how things look on the outside. Lonely people aren’t necessarily “loners.” Even though a lonely person might have many relationships, they aren’t meaningful connections that meet her emotional needs. She could be surrounded by friends and family; she could be attractive and popular. And yet inside, she may feel as though she’s not truly connected to anyone. Lone- liness is more of an inside emotion than an outside reality! Many times, loneliness is mixed up with other emotions. It can go hand-in-hand with boredom, as it did for Lisa, or it can go along with sadness, like it did for Mrs. Holman, or fear, like it did for little Jack. When you go to college, you might feel lonely and homesick at first, even though you’re living in a crowded dorm. A soldier who’s deployed to a foreign country might be lonely even though he’s constantly around other people. His loneliness might be a mixture of boredom, sadness, fear, homesickness, and other emotions. WHAT ARE EMOTIONS? Our emotions are the inner feelings that come and go within us. We’ve been having these feelings ever since we were babies. Sometimes we feel happy, and sometimes we feel sad; sometimes we feel angry, sometimes we’re scared, and sometimes we are bored. People used to think that emotions were the feelings of the soul—or the heart—while physical pain and other sensations were

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What I s Lone l i nes s?