Annotation from Michelle

On Gabby’s Collection:

I found “The Opposite of Loneliness,” to be such a beautiful and incredibly rich work. In particular, I really appreciated the quote: “We’re so young. We’re so young. We’re twenty-two years old… There’s this sentiment I sometimes sense, creeping in our collective conscious as we lay alone after a party, or pack up our books when we give in and go out- that it is somehow too late.” This quote highlights the lingering sense of insufficiency that is in abundance at University’s such as Yale (or Harvard) wherein it appears that the ideal of perfection is inaccessible and the window to attain it has been closed. Keegan refutes this idea, emphasizing how young the student body is and how much potential still exists. I think this quote speaks to the degree of urgency that young new graduates may face to “make something” of themselves and to define themselves with standards that are neither flexible nor realistically achievable. In speaking out on this sentiment, she encourages her fellow students to see the absurdity of an age limit on potential, and pushes readers to recognize the youth that some at only twenty two feel they have already lost.