We asked for reader submissions, and wow, did you deliver. Below you'll find a piece submitted to us from Alumna Rachel Stanley, where she wrestles with the idea of being lonely versus being alone.



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We’ve all experienced periods of loneliness in our lives. Sometimes these periods of loneliness remain more vivid in our memories than the times we felt truly surrounded by love.

I remember how I felt lonely freshman year after my roommate dropped out of school because of her mental illness. I felt lonely when the fact that I was 1,300 miles away from my hometown officially sunk in. I felt lonely junior year when my boyfriend left me for another girl, and I felt lonely when we got back together just to break up again. I felt lonely as a senior when I walked past Common Grounds and didn’t recognize anyone. I felt lonely when I walked across the stage at graduation without the person I spent the last 3 years with. I felt lonely as I walked into my first class as a graduate student the day after my grandfather passed away a few weeks ago.

Even though we all experience periods of loneliness, everyone processes these feelings in their own way. At each stage of my life, isolation looked different.

Today, I am working on a new kind of alone. I am learning to enjoy it. As strange as it is, aloneness is my friend and it is different from loneliness. Loneliness happens to you, but aloneness is something you can embrace.