I truly believe that having a rigid 'plan' for my life and my future was the primary cause of most of my unhappiness. I created my own suffering by deciding what my life 'should' look like and being angry, sad, and disappointed when it didn't turn out that way.
Since I have let go of the 'shoulds' and started accepting what life gives me, my happiness has increased exponentially. It's really all in how you look at it. Life is a grand adventure, and what kind of adventure would it be if it all turned out the way we envisioned it?
You can choose to believe that you have a "hard life of loneliness in front of you," or you can get out there and live it to the fullest. Life is not determined by what happens to us, it is determined by how we handle what happens to us.
L