"What is loneliness? It's like the feeling of standing on the shore and watching the mighty sky merge with the endless ocean." - Haruki Murakami
Sitting by the window, it seems to her that the whole weight of the world is falling on her shoulders. He picks up the phone and reads the messages. Disappointed, she puts it down. No one ever asks her if she's okay. He stares sadly out the window.
She's always checking on people, but no one ever seems to consider that she might need help at some point. She seems so strong because she is always there for people when they need her.
But deep inside she is falling apart and it seems to her that no one even notices her. She needs help, but there is no one anywhere to give it to her.
He doesn't respond as often to the messages he gets. He stays at home. Her life moves into seclusion, until all she does is "trudge" to work and back every day. People say they miss her, that they haven't seen her in ages, and that she's not as active online as she used to be, but no one asks her if she's okay.
She wonders what she did wrong. She wonders why no one cares about her. Why can't the people she's checked up on in the past, when she found them quiet and sad, see her pain?
He feels more lonely every day. The walls around her are closing.
She thought her friends cared about her. Why did they leave her? He knows in his mind that they care, but... It's getting harder and harder to convince him of that.
Her thoughts become more and more negative and she believes them more and more. It slowly becomes a shell of itself. The flicker of light at the end of the tunnel begins to fade as he loses hope.
Deep down she knows why no one asks her how she is. He knows why no one cares how he is. It's not that they don't care, but because they've labeled her as a strong person, they assume that she can handle whatever problems she's facing on her own. They completely overlook the fact that even "strong" people need help.
All her checks on people convinced them that she had everything under control, that there was no need for her to ever need help either. Everyone just assumes it's fine. They say: ” She, she no longer. She is strong. She can do everything herself. Who else but her.”
Meanwhile, the days grow darker and she grows weaker.
Everyone needs help sometimes. It is not always easy to be available to people when they need a hand to keep their heads above water. It's even harder when you're drowning and there's no one there to help you. Check your friends, even the ones you think are strong, that they will never need your help. You never know if you don't ask, do you?
