Stealing away to isolated corners

There is something soothing about solitude. Too much can make the soul melancholic, I know. Yet constantly being surrounded by people...is that natural either?

Maybe I really am an individualist through and through, because I instinctively crave solitude. In groups of peers I don't know well and don't relate to, I have a tendency to withdraw into a fantasy world within my mind. What sweet relief to escape to the upper floors of the library and be embraced by the quiet.

Below, people scurry like ants and chatter like hyenas, but here...silence is caught between the narrow shelves and absorbed by the books upon them. Below are the clubs, the bars, the fashion contests....Here I accompany a few stranded weirdos. Libraries were invented as a haven for us introverted oddities, I guess.

What I don't say

"How was your day?" I knew he would ask. He never failed to ask.

"You know those flowers that close up when the sun isn't out? Today I'm like one of those flowers," I planned to say.

But of course I could never say something like that aloud. That's the stuff of fiction and quotation marks. Instead I replied, "Okay."

Is the earth actually flat? At this point, I wouldn't be surprised

There are several topics I've radically changed my mind about during my life...such as politics, religion, and people I once admired. There are opinions I've been wrong about and information I've been ignorant of, I freely admit. Undoubtedly there still is, though I make every effort to make sense of the world. Sometimes I wonder what misconceptions I'm still living with....