Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come: One Introvert's Year of Saying Yes

by Jessica Pan

loneliness is circumstantial. We move to a new city. We start a new job. We travel alone. Our families move away. We don’t know how to connect with loved ones anymore. We lose touch with friends. It is not a damning indictment of how lovable we are. Introvert or extrovert, shy or outgoing—loneliness can catch you no matter who you are. And it’s common. It’s been described as an epidemic, and a minister for loneliness has been appointed in the UK. In the US, a recent study found that 43 percent of the twenty thousand participants don’t feel they have meaningful relationships and that 46 percent felt alone either sometimes or always. It’s not just the obvious candidates—the elderly, people living in remote locations—who struggle, either. Today’s sixteen-to-twenty-four-year-olds report feeling lonelier than those of any previous generation. Between social media, email, and meal and grocery delivery apps, we can outsource most in-person encounters to our phones, and the reliance on this technology increases with each passing year. Everyone experiences loneliness at some point in their life.