The Opposite of Loneliness
2:40 pm
If you've read my post about feeling in a bit of a slump when it comes to reading, you'll know that one of the books that has been on my list for a long time is The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan.
I first saw the book way back when I was living in Dubai, on one of the shelves in what is probably the biggest bookshop in the world: Kinokuniya in Dubai Mall. I had never heard of Marina Keegan before, and it was actually the cover that most stood out to me. But once I'd picked it up and read the blurb, I knew this was a book I had to read.
Marina Keegan was an aspiring writer, who graduated from magna cum laude (with great honour) from Yale in May 2012. She had a job lined up at the New York Times, but tragically died in a car crash five days after her graduation. The Opposite of Loneliness is a posthumous collection of essays and short stories by Marina, compiled by her parents and teachers. The title essay, The Opposite of Loneliness, opens the book. It was originally written for Yale Daily News, but went viral and received over 1.4 million hits. It's one of the most poignant, thought-provoking essays I think I've ever read, and if you have just five spare minutes of your time, I'd urge you to give it a read. You can access it online here.
The essay discusses Marina's feelings about graduating from Yale, and leaving behind the university community that she had been surrounded by for four years, and I think one of the reasons this particular essay resonates so strongly with me is because I've been going through the exact same emotions with my friends as we prepare to leave Exeter for the last time.
Marina has a certain way of accessing such universal emotions, and this connection resonates throughout the entire collection of both fiction and non-fiction pieces. This is especially true for young people going through similar experiences that Marina was; what I really loved was that the pieces took such scary human experiences like falling in love or worrying about the future, and made them feel normal, and as if you're not the only one feeling that way. As I read the book, I felt like Marina was my friend, and that everything that I was worrying about would be okay because other people were going through a similar thing too.
I would go into more detail about specific stories and pieces within the book, but I don't want to spoil too much and I would truly just urge anyone reading this - especially those who have recently graduated - to pick up a copy (or borrow mine!) as soon as possible, because you really won't regret it.
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