A little lonely

Now, it may just be that I have lived a wonderfully sheltered life, but one of the most painful experiences I am acquainted with is the experience of feeling alone when surrounded by other people.  I have experienced this many times throughout my life, and its not fun.  

I felt that a little bit earlier today.  I went to church and arrived early to have time to reflect.  Most of the seats were open since I was early, and so I chose a spot on the left side of the room, about four rows back and two seats from the aisle.  I assumed that as people came in, that all the seats on my row would be filled.  But they weren't.  The seats further down the row were filled, but two remained.  One on either side of me.  Fortunately, about a minute before the meeting started, the girl two seats down saw a friend and invited him to occupy the seat between us.  I was glad of that, because I feared that there would end up being only two empty seats in the room, both next to me.  

Despite being in a room full of people, I remember feeling very much alone.

Luckily, things improved.  After the meeting I was able to meet the guy who sat between me and his friend and talk to him for a few minutes.  In the next meeting I went and sat next to someone and started a conversation before class started, and another girl joined us, sitting on my other side and I talked with her as well.  Then during the third hour a good friend of one of my roommates came up and told me that he was going to sit with me.  

So luckily, I'm not as alone as I felt that I was.  But I still remember the feeling.  It was a good and somewhat painful reminder of how empty feeling it is to feel forgotten, overlooked and unwanted.  I wonder if there were other people in that room feeling that way at the same time, or if they feel it on other days.  It makes me want to be better about seeing others who might be feeling the way that I felt and being a friend to them.