My post today is less an exposition, and more a research project. I'm curious to know to what extent extreme solitude would have on your life:

Are you comfortable alone with your thoughts, a little uneasy, or severely distressed?

Do you consider yourself to be a highly social person? If so, would it be a minor inconvenience if that were no longer possible, or would it be distressing enough to cause a crisis of personal identity?

Do you believe there to be any longterm physical problems from limited social interaction? If so, what are they?

Same as above, but psychological. If you believe it causes problems, what are they?


 
Physical location around the globe can be overlooked in a strong friendship. Steady connections are not reliant on standing next to each other. The best relationships (friendly or romantic) are built on a solid base of trust and understanding. Neither of those is acquired simply by being down the street for a hug.

Separation is the most difficult test, however. Waiting to find out if your best friends will forget you once you’re living somewhere else… hearing stories, but never taking part… feeling as though a piece of you is interacting with the world on its own in another town…

The hardest test. Forgotten and replaced, or remembered and cherished?

 
The first, and most important key to writing is this:
Know how to read yourself.
What you need will likely vary. Some days I need silence and paper, and to block everything out. Some days I need a certain genre of music or even a single band. Many days I need my computer.

Sometimes I need to be out in nature to capture the beauty around me.

And some days I need to not actually write anything at all, but instead to just sit and think
 
This is one that I posted last autumn. This is a repost from my blogspot page, but it seemed fitting today.

 
Traveling truly is my favourite thing to do. Every aspect of the journey is thrilling to me, both “good” (exploring, learning, meeting people) and “bad” (frustrating layovers, plans that fall through) and everything in between. The important thing to me is to keep moving and keep experiencing things.

With that in mind, it makes sense that I am plagued by perpetual wanderlust. One consequence of knowing I was created to see as much as possible of this beautiful world (and constantly aching to do so, even if I have just recently returned home) is that I sometimes forget the first secret to a great journey: