The loneliness that hit when I was around people was worse somehow than when I was all alone. When there were other people in my vicinity, my lungs burned like I was drowning right in front of them and no one cared. I had no one, and I was tired of it. Forget friends—I wanted more. I wanted to grab hold of this short lease on life I had, and I might as well go for it, right? I wouldn’t start small and work my way up; there was no time for that. I’d go big, go so big that everything else would seem tiny by comparison.
