I don’t mind being alone… I just wish I felt less disconnected sometimes

I’ve been trying to understand my loneliness, and I realized it’s not really about wanting constant company. I actually like being alone. I like quiet. I like sitting in my thoughts without noise or expectations. Solitude doesn’t scare me. What gets to me is a quiet kind of disconnect… even when I’m around people. I can talk, laugh, and function normally. I show up, I listen, I care. But there’s this subtle feeling like most interactions stay on the surface, and I rarely feel truly “met” in a deeper way. Not ignored, not mistreated — just… not fully understood either. And I’m not looking for attention. I don’t need to be the center of anything. I just sometimes wish someone could recognize the quieter parts of me without me having to explain them. I think that’s the ache — not isolation, but distance. Because you can be surrounded by people and still feel like there’s a small space inside you that no one else quite reaches. I don’t even know what would fix it. More conversations? Deeper ones? Just one moment of feeling fully understood? I’m not sure. I just know that I don’t hate being alone. I just wish being around others didn’t still feel lonely sometimes.