• Some people believe that loneliness only occurs when one is alone. This, I now know, is not the case. Loneliness, that feeling that seeps into your soul and eats away at your core, is a deeply rooted virus that infiltrates every facet of life. When surrounded by beings that call themselves your friends, you can feel utterly abandoned. When in a room brimming with the laughter of dozens, therein lies the very essence of isolation. When encompassed by smiling faces, the lonely heart aches, and its escort is dragged down, down into the depths of sorrow with it. This is what it means to be truly lonely; one's heart rebels against one's body, refusing to smile, to live on through whatever pain wracks the emotions. This is what every person who has ever lost anything believes that they can understand, but they cannot. Everyone fools themselves into thinking that they can relate to those for whom loneliness is a cold, iron cell; but they cannot begin to comprehend. No, for only very few can appreciate the real meaning of the word "alone"; pain so acute that death is preferable. That is what loneliness really, truly means.