We all belong here.

I drew this not long after moving to a new place to start University during COVID lockdowns. This picture represents some of the things that bring me happiness including nature, listening to music and reading.

These are the most significant experiences in my life where I have felt lonely. So the top left corner is about siblings that have big age gaps, my eldest brother and sister are 9 and 12 years older than me. When I was 14 I had some issues with a parent and they didn’t understand how much it was affecting me because they weren’t living in it. They both had their own lives and one lived in another state, and the other had a kid and a house. I feel like they should have stuck up for me a bit more.

The next one (Top right) is pretty recent – I have started to feel a lot better lately in terms of mental health, and theres this grief, when you realise how much that has taken from you – missed experiences, opportunities, the things you could have done or achieved if you didn’t have depression or anxiety.

(Bottom left) having a rocky relationship with my mum can be isolating and exhausting when you have to be the parent – especially when you look around and your friends or peers get to be an early 20s person with their own life.

Bottom right feeling different from the rest or not like you fit anywhere my mum is white Australian, and my dad is African American. My black side is what I feel more connected to, but because I look a certain way (I have lighter skin than my siblings) people from my own culture even dismiss me. It can feel isolating when your whole identity doesn’t feel validated.

I was 19
When I cut ties with the people who raised me
Not because I stopped loving them
But because loving them meant losing me.

Everyone says
"You're so brave"
But no one talks about the loneliness
That comes after survival.

I sat in rooms full of people
And still felt like a ghost.
The world moved forward
But I stayed stuck —
in grief, in silence,
in the ache of being
unseen.

I thought leaving would free me.
But it unstitched everything.
I was building a new life
With shaking hands
And no one to hold the blueprints.

There were nights I nearly gave up —
Not because I wanted to die
But because I didn’t know
how to live without a map.

But then—
Connection came in quiet ways.
A friend who stayed.
A puppy who trusted me.
Someone who didn’t walk away
when I let them see the real me.

And somewhere in that
I found my voice.

I spoke.
Not clean.
Not calm.
But real.

And it saved me.

Because loneliness doesn’t always mean being alone —
Sometimes it’s the silence
after you speak your truth
and wonder if anyone heard.

This is me telling you:
I hear you.
You’re not too much.
You’re not alone.

And your voice?
It might just be the beginning
of your way back.

Notifications full; Heart empty: Notifications constantly remind you of life going on without you — conversations you're not part of, plans you're not invited to, or people you're missing.