The Significance of Solitude

“Alone, even doing nothing, you do not waste your time. You do, almost always, in company. No encounter with yourself can be altogether sterile. Something necessarily emerges, even if only the hope of some day meeting yourself again.” — Emil Cioran

It is my honest belief that people aren’t built to be alone. Most people can’t stand silence. The world grows noisier and faster every day. We rarely stop and look around. We rarely try to spend time alone and figure things out for ourselves. However, creative people are different. They do care.

When I was a kid, I would catch a cold every so often and wouldn’t go outside and play with the other kids. During those brief moments, my whole universe was contained inside my house. Looking back at that time, I viewed it as the cold perspective of a stranger observing someone else’s life. But it wasn’t.

As a child, life was simple. I played with my toys and made up stories. I read books, and I tried to learn as much as I could to talk to an adult like an equal. I enjoyed it. I also spent a lot of time alone in silence, but my mind was never quiet. Solitude grants you the bizarre freedom to fill your mind with questions and answers.

I spent a lot of time building the life I was going to have. At times I felt like I spent more time someplace else than with my own body. This filled…