4 ms·

I crave solitude yet I still feel lonely, like I'm missing a tribe. I haven't had a chance to be alone by myself for more than an hour for the last few months s

I crave solitude yet I still feel lonely, like I'm missing a tribe. I haven't had a chance to be alone by myself for more than an hour for the last few months since I moved in with my boyfriend. I went from lonely entrepreneur to my social bar overflowing into the red zone, where any additional social obligation is a sacrifice of me time. I love my partner, he is the best person ever, but he can't be everything, like sharing my passion about period poverty as much as I can hahaha. I have a loving tribe of wonderful partner, family, and friends but I'm still searching for weirdos like me, entrepreneurs that are more interested in building sustainable and ethical business practices than making money. In that sense, I crave solitude but I still feel lonely, like I'm missing out on very meaningful relationships with people with similar goals and passions.

thisiszilff 8y ago
I've always thought that our contemporary world pushes these two sometimes contradictory ideas on us: that we are unique individuals and that we are supposed to have a "tribe" of people like ourselves. The more "unique" you become (or the more intimately you know yourself) the more you're able to draw differences between you and others which impedes finding your "tribe." It's a trope in media to have a "friend group" of people that share certain core, common, traits but these are entirely artificial constructs that don't accuractely reflect the messy business of human relationships. The sleight of hand comes about when we begin to feel as if WE are missing out, as if WE have failed, and not that this artificial notion that's been distilled in us is in actuality unreasonable and unrealistic.