Today, I learned a new word

sonder - n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own



Some days everyone around me feels small and insignificant. The whole world doesn't appear to be made up of individual people but instead just of me. Me and only me. This selfish outlook is something I feel we all share and have felt at some point in life. I mean, it's in a person's nature to worry about themselves. We all are trying to survive. But then you hit a wall. A wall of thought and realization and despair. Everyone you see everyday has problems, issues, troubles and in a lot of cases there is nothing you can do about it. Today I was slapped in the face with a feel of sonder. As I was shifting around in my overly cushy seat at the doctor's office, waiting for my turn to have a needle shoved into my arm, I heard a small cough. I looked up and saw an old man, someone I hadn't noticed before. He was wearing a dirty shirt, had holes in his glove and his shoes were decrepit. His cheeks were flushed bright red. His life was full of good days and bad. He had seen it all. And yet, too preoccupied with my own problems, I hadn't even noticed his existence. Glancing around the room I noticed the sleep deprived nurse, crying girl and lonely man and it hit me that I was not alone. I was immensely small. Even the smiling men and women on the covers of the nearby fashion magazines had problems and issues. Everyone has problems. I am not alone and I find comfort in that. I find comfort in the insignificance.