It's a strange feeling when you're initiated into a club you never wanted to be in. It's just another inevitability -- along with sadness, anger and loneliness -- that comes part and parcel with a breakup.
Now, I know it's not an official club but the Lonely Hearts Club (h/t to The Beatles), which I'm deciding now is its proper name, is very real. And you don't quite realize its tangibility until you're in it. Before admittance, you're aware that heartache and heartbreak are extremely rampant feelings, but it's an abstract idea. As concrete as a laugh or a deep breath.
It isn't until the rallying begins that you realize the magnitude of what you're included in. Aside from the insane wave of conflicting emotions pulsing through your brainwaves, the first thing that happens post-breakup is the coming together of friends and family. People from all areas of your life come out of the woodwork to show their support for you. And why is that? It's because you're a new member of the Lonely Hearts Club and, official or not, every initiate of a club needs a welcoming committee -- particularly a club that has incalculable numbers.
The Lonely Hearts Club is not an exclusive club by any means, and it certainly does not discriminate by race, gender or sexual preference. As such, the club creates bonds between individuals who may not relate on any other level. But getting your heart broken is one of the most unique emotions a person can feel. The sheer weight of it makes you feel as though there is no way anyone can possibly comprehend what your body is doing. And that's the beauty of the club. No matter what the cause of the heartbreak, the other members? They know. They're in on this terrible, crippling feeling and they know what life is like before it, during it, and after it.
In becoming a member of the club, there's suddenly solace. Having the knowledge that hundreds, thousands, millions of others have felt this deep hurt, this seemingly endless emptiness? It's like an enormous billboard indicating: "YOU ARE NOT ALONE." And, truly, isn't that what we all want to know? We are not the broken, irreparable beings that we sometimes think we are. We aren't doing this by ourselves and if we can just hold on to that, even at our darkest hours, the light at the end of the tunnel doesn't seem so far off.
Heartbreak is universal and if you've found yourself new to the emotion... well, I welcome you to the club, dear friend. As learned from the The Mary Tyler Moore Show, you're going to make it after all.