Marina Keegan's Essay: The Opposite Of Loneliness

In today’s era it is all about being part of something big and rising to the top to be what everyone else wishes they could be. However, people must not lose sight of what is important. That is the unity and support they will receive from emerging themselves in the diversity of life and the people around them. In Marina Keegan’s essay, “The Opposite of Loneliness,” she opens everyone’s eyes to realize that no one has to settle for what they do not enjoy and that people do not have to accept past decisions as the final ones. Society has drowned everyone in the idea that young and successful is the only way to go, and from there they must keep pushing forward. However, Keegan shows that everyone is in the same rushed life together and if individuals

In Keegan’s essay, she discusses numerous times about how, without really knowing it, everyone is somewhat in the same boat. Throughout reading this, people will learn that society needs to start taking the concept of humanity and turning it into community. For example, in the middle of her essay she writes “But the thing is, we’re all like that” (2). To continue the quote further down in the paragraph she says, “We have these impossibly high standards and we’ll probably never live up to our perfect fantasies of our future selves” (2). In both instances, she is explaining that we all look at others and assume that, as she states, “others are somehow ahead” (2). Throughout this essay people will be able to enlighten themselves with the fact that there are only a few people in this world who know exactly what they want from a young age and can easily accomplish that goal. Everyone makes mistakes and will run into multiple obstacles every day, but after reading Keegan’s essay it is taught that these past choices do not have to be the final ones. The public has assumed, “That it’s too late now to BEGIN a beginning and we must settle for continuance, for commencement” (2). Keegan is describing the push that society has taught individuals that they must commit to the decision they have made and cannot start over. In fact,

To limit their dreams just for the fact of being able to begin success before everyone is a mistake people continue to make. Towards the end of Keegan’s essay, she exclaims, “What we have to remember is that we can still do anything. We can change our minds. We can start over.” (3). She is showing individuals that even when they think they are at the end of their road and that the future may seem short, there is never a last chance to change the outcome of their own lives. People are only limited to the length of their life and it is their own decision to either make it what they want or make it what society assumes it should be. Keegan also states, “We’re graduating from college. We’re so young. We can’t, we MUST not lose this sense of possibility because in the end, it’s all we have.” (3). She’s reminding everyone that their lives are not like a fire that once extinguished, the smoke is the only direction they can follow. Instead, Keegan says, “But let us get one thing straight: the best years of our lives are not behind us” showing that their lives are like matches and with each stroke it lights the way onto a new path and new opportunities of self-exploration