Every so often I wonder how people could feel so much for fictional characters on a movie or TV screen or in a book, and yet they fail to see the same struggles in real people.
Perhaps it’s because we don’t really know these people around us with depth unlike when we see or read a character arc developing right in front of us.
I imagine that each person in this world has hidden tattoos of their pains, regrets, struggles, and fears. And what you have on yourself, someone else might carry too.
At times when I ask my students, “How are you?” and they say they’re good. I really wonder if that was true. So sometimes I try a different approach which is sharing my experiences and when I hear a “me too,” it reveals a little of those tattoos which connect us somehow. I don’t want to be just a teacher or a friend, I really hope to build genuine connections with the people around me because, at the end of the day, we are all merely human beings pushing on.
I suppose this is how I feel and think, not because I hope they might give me something in return. Maybe, deep down, I simply know that whatever someone is going through or has gone through, someday I may too. It makes people less, less lonely.
It makes me less, less lonely.
© 2020 Dana Eve Valencia
