The first time I heard the song, “Message in a Bottle” by The Police, I was at Coffee House my freshman year. I don’t remember the members of the band that performed it, only that I thought it was amazing. It was by far one of the best performances that night. I remember going home afterwards and looking up the song and adding it to the top of my playlist. It’s been in that spot ever since, with its driving reggae beat and uplifting message that never fails to pick me up when I’m feeling down.

The song is uplifting in the way that it reminds us that no man is alone. Even at the lowest low, there is always going to be someone to offer support and give companionship in the loneliness.

Comparing himself to “an island lost at sea,” the singer laments his loneliness and his craving for a connection with someone, anyone. He makes a shot in the dark and sends “an SOS to the world.” He reaches out, using his “message in a bottle,” and eventually reaches someone, getting responses from “a hundred billion” people as lonely as he.

“I’m not alone at being alone” is my favorite lyric in the song because it is so true. It is natural to feel like a single fish in a vast ocean, alone and left to fend for itself. But there are always other fish, others ready to accept you and make you feel better. You are never the only one that feels the way you do, and once you finally let someone know what you’re feeling, a new bond and friendship will be formed that can ease your loneliness.

People are never as alone as they feel. Even when feeling their most isolated, all they need is to “send an SOS to the world” in order to find the other “hundred billion castaways” that feel the same. Find someone to talk to when you feel down and lonely, because chances are there will be someone just like you. No man is an island.