Ah, High School.

Every day you're pushed into a big building with, in my case, over 2,000 people. Every day you hang out with you friends, talk with teachers, you're with the same people for 7+ hours 10 months out of the year.

So, why do we feel so lonely?

Now, to any of my friends who may be reading this, know that you guys mean the absolute world to me. I love you guys so much, I can't put it in to words.

But, this is for the students like me.

You know who you are.

You're the kid who would rather sit in the corner of the classroom with headphones on and do their work alone, rather than talk to other people.

You're the kid who would rather sit in your favorite teacher's classroom during lunch rather than deal with the cafeteria. The plethora of people in one room is just too much to handle.

You're the kid who may be failing a few subjects because you're too scared to ask for help. You don't want to break the silence of the quiet classroom during work, you don't want everyone to know that you're still on question one when they've moved on to the next page.

You're the kid with a lot of friends. Friends that you love, friends that you know you can count on whenever you are in need.

But you're old friend anxiety comes in to ruin your day.

You notice the little things. You notice the text conversations becoming shorter. You notice your friends becoming friends with other people, forming inside jokes and making memories that you know you won't be apart of. You notice your best friends hanging out with each other, not inviting you for the ride.

Because, well, you just don't fit.

You're too scared to join in on a conversation because you don't want to be a bother. You're too scared to reach out for help because you don't want to feel like a burden.

You're too scared to ask that one person out because you don't want to feel the embarrassment.

Social Anxiety is a bitch, Anxiety is a bitch.

So what do you do? To tell you the truth, I don't know what you would do. Everyone is different. But, I will tell you what I do, what I've done my entire damn life.

Fictional characters, they become your best friends. Obsessions start to happen, because according to your anxiety filled brain they're all you have.

You find characters that are just like you because they make you feel like you're not alone. It's a safety blanket, a place and a world you can turn to that you know will always be there.

Whenever you feel alone, whenever you feel like you're at the lowest point of all possibilities, the characters you relate to so much are there to pull you through.

So, why am I telling you all this? Why am I currently typing out how it feels to feel lonely in high school, and how it feels like to deal with social anxiety, and how I deal with it?

I write this for that one high school student who knows how it feels. They're scared to go to school every morning, and they deal with it the same way I do, finding feelings of content in characters that don't exist off a page or a screen.

I write this for the kid who deals with other people telling them how they deal with their anxiety is stupid. I write this for the kid who hears from people every day that characters are just characters and nothing more.

Hell, I may be writing this for you as you read this article right now.

I write this just to say that it's okay how you feel. That you are not alone. I write this to tell you to give that fictional character or story of yours a big hug and a thank you from me for helping you. For saving you.

I write this to tell you that the dreaded days that you know as high school are going to end soon. Pretty soon, you're going to have control of your life. You're gonna be able to be whoever you want to be.

You're going to be able to be you.

So just hold out a little longer, be a little stronger. Know it's okay how you feel, it's okay how you see the world.

Know that there are people just like you out there, and one day you're gonna meet them and change the world.

You.