Sonder – The realization that each passerby has a life as vivid and complex as yours
Today was the convocation of the previous set at my college and it was nothing short of spectacular. So many graduating students celebrating getting to the major milestone in their lives and there was my best friend and I pacing up and down trying to gather food from the “plugs” we already got a “Yes, just come to my canopy” from and he casually said he know this is a day of happiness and everyone is meant to be happy but does it seem like some people aren’t as happy as they should be? like the day’s not as special to them as you’d expect it to be to a person who survived four years of college.
I thought about that statement for a while and then came the word “Sonder”. I then saw things differently. Although from a broader perspective, it’s a day of happiness, I mean you made it, you can attach the tag “graduate” to your name but is everyone as ecstatic as you expect them to be?
Would a perfectionist who didn’t get the grade they want be as happy we expect them to be?
Would someone who comes from a perfectionist family who often used the phrase “can you see him? He’s getting the best graduating student and he doesn’t have two heads, why can’t you be like him?” Be as happy as you expect them to be?
Would someone who lost a friend along the way be happy knowing fully well that if that friend were to be alive, they would be graduating together?
I then looked at everyone (I was standing at a pretty high ground point) and it made me realise that everyone I watched walk past was a main character in their story going through their main character shii on their own and they were influenced by their own surroundings in a unique way even though they shared the same environment.
So although they were in the same convocation event, all graduating, one person would get into the car at the end and let out a huge sigh of relief that they made it to the end.
Another person would get into the car and the smile they put on their face outside would disappear.
Another person would get into the car to be hit with a barrage of “you could have done better”, “so you didn’t even collect any award”, “You didn’t get a first class? ” And another person would get into the car and immediately start looking to the future.
Different people, same event, different experiences.
Ojo Ezra