The first questioned I got after telling someone I was going to be traveling by myself for a month was, “won’t you get lonely?”

I usually shrugged as a response. I suppose I would expect some loneliness to happen, but I didn’t expect it to come in so many forms.

Here’s what I’ve felt:

There’s the empowered form of lonliness. You against the world, with nothing but your own strength, mind, and wits to sustain you. You alone can do anything.

And there’s the freaked-out form of lonliness, when you are so intimidated by the task before you, with all it’s uncertainty and danger (muggings in my case) that you have to face alone, and you want to run from the challenge and catch an earlier flight back into the comfort of your living room back home.

There’s also a form of loneliness when you are experiencing something so awesome and you look to your side to see no one sharing it with you.

And there are those satisfying times of lonliness. I experience those after something so simple as making it home successfully after a difficult day of bus schedules–all by myself.

But the opposite exists with an anxious and worried form of lonliness, which I felt that time I missed a bus stop, or which i feel even now as I figure how to travel the 3-day trek thru Torres del Paine by myself.

I’ve also experienced lonliness after parting ways with a good travel partner, or saying good-bye to the really cute hostel worker in Bariloche as I travel a new place where you don’t know anyone.

And lastly, the heavy form of lonliness. It’s usually a combination of two or more of the above. Earlier today I was feeling this some while walking around waiting for a taxi to take me to the airport. Lost in my thoughts, I didn’t notice the entourage forming around me until I stopped to sit down, and two of the sweetest looking dogs laid down beside me.

I’m constantly followed by dogs here, and I didn’t think of it much until I looked at this dog’s particularly sad face, I remembered an old story I heard once.

There’s an old Native-American legend about a time when Man and beasts were living together. One day all the beasts gathered together against Man, and they drew a line on the ground to seperate themselves from him. Then Man, who was standing alone, faced the beasts and asked, “won’t one of you stand beside me?” None came forward, except for Dog, who jumped the line to sit himself beside Man.