Why be isolated?

Emotions and what makes people tick the way they do has been pondered about for a long time. In fact, it has been pondered practically since ancient men were able to divert their attention to something other than finding food. \nEveryone from Aristotle to Shakespeare to the musicians whose MP3s you illegally downloaded spent a great deal of time dwelling on feelings and the like. \nLove, hate, anger, jealousy, desire, need, fear. Where does it all come from and what's the point? \nOf course, if Aristotle, Shakespeare and other brilliant philosophical, literary, and psychological minds have devoted their lives to it and still haven't satisfied the public, an IU freshman cannot possibly provide you with a well-developed philosophy that encompasses human thought, feeling and personality in a 500-word column. \nSo I will simply challenge the popular notion that you are only truly yourself when you are alone. No matter who someone is with other people, it's only a façade for the world. Thus, you can never entirely know another person. This notion is just an excuse for people who don't want to be close to others. \nI feel bad for those who are so afraid to make connections with people. These are the cynics. These are the people who grow up to be the friendless, family-less, mean old people who live in their funny pink houses with 37 cats and scare the neighborhood children. These are the people who get married ... for the seventh time. These are the people who slowly and surely drive anyone who matters out of their lives. \nI think in quite the opposite terms. \nI think you are who you truly are when you are around other people. People serve as catalysts for various aspects of your personality. Being around someone you dislike activates a mean side of your personality; being around someone you love activates your sweet side. \nWho are you when you're sitting alone in your dorm room staring at your pile of homework and trying to put it off? I don't know. I don't even know who I am when I'm alone. \nThe point is, it doesn't matter. \nPeople chip away at their confidence and their relationships by constantly over-analyzing things and not just taking them for what they are. \nSure the tree falls in the forest and makes a noise, but if nobody's there to hear it, it doesn't matter. In the same respect you can't really be nice or mean if there is nobody to be nice or mean to. \nAnd if that is the case, then you in fact can know a person entirely. You know what that person is to you, what they are like when they are with you. Sure you might not know what they're like in their down time but it's not really important if Susie Student likes to draw hearts around her professor's name while dreaming of intellectually stimulating academic-type dinner dates. If she's a good friend to you, then that's who she is. There you have it. You know her.