Finding Purpose Through Authentic ConnectionExemplo

I never felt like I completely fit in. No one had to tell me I was different. I believed it, and that was enough... I created a narrative inside my own head that told me I was not seen, not heard, not valued. I was alone in plain sight. If I ever started to doubt it, life came along and confirmed my worst fears...

I never imagined anyone else felt the same way I did. Maybe that’s part of life as an outsider. Your mind won’t let you believe you fit in anywhere, even if you find others who feel exactly the same way as you. The wounds from all the self-fulfilling prophecies of rejection that reinforce feelings of being unloved and unwanted lock you into a destructive mindset where you can never fit in. That’s where I was. In my mind, everyone else fit in somewhere. Everyone else was in on the joke while I stood outside the circle thinking the joke was on me. I could never see myself as anything other than the odd man out, and it ate at me more than I wanted to admit...

The cure for isolation is connection, not just with others and romantic partners—although that is a given—but with God and even with ourselves. I have discovered that all four are interconnected. For me, the first step of this journey has always begun with a question, one many of us struggle to answer: Who are you?