sonder | ✔️

sonder and effect

She walks through the city as she always does; analyzing, listening - observing her surroundings. Through various alleyways and into the small shops lined up along the street, she wanders around her city. In turn, she gets to glimpse into the lives of strangers. No one truly understands another person's life, and people rarely come to the realization that everyone has a completely unique lifestyle - their own complex life; sonder. Observing, she takes in the differences of each individual, watching as people bustle in the busy streets, taking time to admire the towering buildings, and breathing in the familiar smell of the polluted air. She contemplates her significance on earth; what impact does she leave in her path of living?

On her walks, she has no destination. She just observes the events around her and attempts to comprehend the differences and similarities in the hundreds of people she encounters each day. More than seven billion people live on this planet, and each has their own life as intricate as hers. This thought takes over her mind, the realization that people don't live the same way she does, almost consuming her. These people have their own experiences, ambitions, fears, joys, hardships, mistakes, and their own love and hate. Through each window of the buildings surrounding her, there is a person, living their own life, doing something she might not ever think of. She may only ever appear to someone once in their lifetime, as a lit room at dusk, as a blur of traffic passing by, or as someone seen through the window of a store. The smallest of her actions could potentially impact someone's entire life, just as they impact hers, yet she could also have no significance to someone's life. Like a chain reaction of people affecting or not affecting the lives of others.

Networks of acquaintances, friends, family members, enemies, and strangers; all of these affect the way someone lives. She is the protagonist, the main character and centre, of her own story and yet she is influenced by each. Her family and friends are so encompassed in her life, yet their lives are so extremely different from hers. That stranger who held the door for her, the little kid who smiled at her as she walked by, the subdued person who sat at the table to her left, and the elderly person who expressed their gratitude and respect for her chivalrous deeds; all of which influence how she continues her day and the choices she makes. Just as others brought her happiness, she was a light in somebody's life, brightening their day. Weaving in and out of people through the streets, she passed by little shops here and there always peeking in. Then, she catches his eye, but in an instant, she's gone again; she's passing another shop, and she can't help but think of him.

Deciding to head into a little supermarket - no larger than a convenience store, she catches someone's eye through the window of a small bakery across the street. As she enters the store, she notices few people are in the store looking for items. Walking through the few isles she passes by each individual, trying to imagine what they may be thinking about at this moment. The cashier is standing there, always smiling and ensuring their customers leave with a smile. Her thoughts of the strangers around her expand, she thinks about the people living on the other side of the planet; what would her life be like if she wasn't as privileged as she is?

Every human lives an unique life catered to their own beliefs, religions, traditions, cultures, and personalities. She walks out the store, bearing nothing in her arms, and walks through a large group of people, all talking and laughing with one another. Another person's phone is knocked out of their hand and the person responsible profusely apologizes as they notice the cracked screen. They exchange contact information with a promise of a fixed screen, and this is where two strangers meet, impacting each other's life and becoming more than just strangers. A hesitation in someone's step as they make eye contact with another, someone famous influencing how a person views life, a scientific breakthrough made by some scientist effecting how a person thinks; all of whom begin as strangers but influence and occupy the thoughts of another being.

Reality is lost in her brain as she thinks about the lives of others. She focuses on the movement of everyone around her, completely losing herself in sonder. The people around her carry on invisibly, preoccupied with their own life. Every relationship has its own string of stories attached, these of which she will never know. There are so many individuals that she may never know, and of which she may never know any of their stories; it feels like such a disconnect from reality. Too focused on her life, that when thinking of sonder, nothing feels real. Walking and walking fast, with her head down staring at her shoes, she doesn't focus on where she's going. All of a sudden she's sitting on the ground with a sore head. It's him.

"I-I'm so sorry! I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. Are you okay?"

sonder;

this begins the story of how two strangers inevitably met, impacting each other's lives and becoming more than strangers.