Sitting alone at lunch isn’t a verdict on you. Sometimes it’s just a quieter table.

An empty seat beside you is not a result, although it reads like one at the time. Lunch tables are mostly accidents of timetable and habit, and plenty of people sitting in a group are not enjoying it much either. The silence does not mean anything about your worth, however loudly it seems to. Some days a quieter table is genuinely the better place to be.

If it has been a while, you could try one small thing this week: sit near somebody from a class and ask about the work, or take a book and let the half hour be yours. Either is a fine way to spend lunch.