Brave Strangers

I have these vivid memories from when I was younger of driving down a road with one of my parents and being fascinated with looking out the window and observing the other drivers. I couldn’t have been older than 10 or 11, but I took great interest in trying to read the faces of these strangers for the few seconds I got to look at them. Their facial expressions, the manner in which they were driving, their habits, the clothes they were wearing and the car they were driving. I would construct little stories that might explain the day they were having. Where are you headed? What are you speeding away from? I never found out if  my predictions held any truth, I had no way of knowing what kind of day they were having, but I pretended I had known every thing about that stranger for the mere seconds they were a part of my life. I don’t think I ever wanted to know if my fake stories were true, I think I just wanted that kind of connection with a stranger. I wanted us to mutually understand each other. I don’t know your name but we were on the same highway at the same time and your car matched up with mine for just a split second. To me, this means we’ve essentially crossed paths in our journeys. I’d just like to know how you’re doing.

When I start to reflect back on my life thus far I realize the amount of things I’ve experienced. I’ve gone through a lot of ups and a hell of a lot of downs. I started to wonder if anyone was ever looking at me through their car window, trying to figure out how I’m doing, or what I’m going through during these times in my life. Maybe someone saw my mother, a lively, youthful soul working her daily shift at the local grocery store, not knowing she was battling endometrial cancer at that very moment. Her heart shaken with fear but her lip remaining stiff, only moving to make way for her boisterous laugh on countless occasions. The human body is remarkable in that way. Even when your spirit is shattered and mayhem is erupting inside of you, your outward appearance remains untouched by it all. Your legs still rise from bed in the morning, one at a time, just as routine as the scheduled sunrise, never failing to appear despite the varying conditions.

Your body does not wear the scars of your heart, for those are only visible in the darkness when the mind is left alone and most vulnerable.

I was walking through campus after work and I began to slip into my old ways. I was passing so many faces, all headed in different directions, but yet all moving one step at a time, as I was. I started to think about who they might be and who they hope to become. How was his morning? Is everything going well in her life? Is he a multimillionaire heir? Does she come from poverty or a broken home? Is he mourning a loss? Celebrating a new beginning? I grew extremely inspired by the thought of how different we might be in our struggles and situations yet how similar we are in the simple fact that we all got up today. We all got up and decided we were going to conquer today, regardless of how easy or hard that decision may have been for some. In that moment, I realized I had fed off that inspiration during some of the worst days of my life. I will never have the chance to intimately know each fleeing soul, but I find comfort in their mere presence. The demons we battle and the obstacles we face are all very different. I don’t know what your speeding off to or what you’re desperately trying to escape, but I do know one thing; We all got up today. I can’t think of something more inspiring than that.

If we channel this energy from one another, we can, as strangers, become integral parts of each other’s lives without ever knowing it. To have purpose on this earth is as simple as finding the drive to rise from bed tomorrow morning and embrace life in it’s rawest of forms.

So I thank all of those strangers whom I’ve subconsciously looked to, your strength to face that given day gave me the inspiration to do the same time and time again. You never know how much you might be adding to this world or how purposeful you are, even in your most mediocre moments.

 “We are never satisfied. Never. But we keep on keeping on. Why? Because it is our essence.”