"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one.'"

—C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

Self-protection often works by convincing us that our particular confusion, fear, or struggle is uniquely ours—evidence of something wrong with us specifically, something that would alarm or bore others if they knew. We carry it alone, which tends to make it feel heavier and stranger than it actually is.

That moment of recognition Lewis describes—the sudden discovery that someone else has been living with the same thing—can be startling in its relief. Not because the problem disappears, but because the isolation does. Something that felt like a private failing turns out to be part of being human. That shift, small as it can seem, may be where something like belonging begins.