I don’t mean to say I believe in fate. I just mean I’ve always felt like the chaotic one trying to figure out how to fit into the world around me. Now in this isolation, it seems like the world is disjointed and figuring itself out, and I’m the one with some type of order, waiting on the world to find its axis again.

In modern times, an experience of self—what is sometimes called a “sense of self”—that is defined only by our individual body as a center of identity and belonging can lead to the sadly common experience of disconnection, disillusionment, and despair.