“You see I usually find myself among strangers because I drift here and there trying to forget the sad things that happened to me.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

There it is. One of the lines from a book that I always fall back into. Very few people understand a happy sadness. I feel like Gatsby was just that.

You can be the most outgoing person and yet lonely at the same time. You can also be surrounded by people that you know and feel the opposite, that you don’t know them at all.

I sometimes find comfort in strangers. There are no preset expectations that I need to fulfill to make others happy. Are people needing such fulfillment or am I making that up?

While having a horrible habit of setting high expectations for others and myself I immediately associate high hopes with people I know. Yet with strangers I expect nothing. I also feel mindless in such company.

I want to make it a point this year to be comfortable in new situations. Using these moments for self reflection. Isn’t it ironic how large groups can be so intimate?