Social Interaction

Till yesterday, I used to think my problem was I don't have a life outside my PhD, so if the PhD wasn't going well, I would be blue. That is not true. While it is true that I don't have much of a social life, I do have a rich inner life. For an introvert life, building a social life is a tedious task even in the best of times. During Covid times, it is nigh impossible. Accepting that I am loner who has a rich inner life which he is open to sharing with the right people has not been easy. A part of it is societal expectations, a part is the reality of loneliness. The departure of a close friend from Bristol is also imminent, which might end all social interaction for me. The prospect doesn't sink my heart as it would have before the pandemic. The pandemic has shortened our horizons because staring too far into an uncertain future is an unnerving experience. It's best to keep our foresight limited to the next few days. "I won't been seeing anyone for the next few days" sounds much more manageable than "I won't be seeing anyone for the next few weeks or months". Maybe truncated horizons are here to stay. Maybe life in the next few years will be so uncertain and so eventful that planing for the future will be both difficult and imprudent.